Just in time for the peak summer driving season, gas prices are once again climbing, once again putting a strain on budgets already stretched too thin.
Cheap gas was the one bright spot for families suffering with burdensome mortgage payments, rising unemployment and credit card debt. Now even that slight relief is disappearing.
"If they go up again this year, I don't know what I'm going to do," said Gina Pierce. "If they go way up again, we're going to be in trouble. It's just going to be one more thing to deal with."
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The price of a gallon of gas shot up 10 cents in the last week to $2.62 for regular unleaded. While that's still $1.42 less than this period last year, it's up nearly 60 cents from the start of April. This is the highest weekly average since the end of October 2008.
The tight economy has already forced Pierce and her husband Robert to cut their daughters' health care.
"It was another thing we had to get rid of to afford food," said Pierce, of Clearbrook, Minn.
How Are You Dealing With Gas Prices? Tell ABC News.
Every penny at the gas pump adds up. Pierce runs a horse-training business and needs to drive a gas-guzzling truck far distances. Her husband drives 80 miles each day to and from work.
"It's a bad situation all around," she said. "I pray every night for help. We basically live one day at a time."
ABC News first spoke to Pierce almost exactly a year ago. At that point, the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in America was $3.93, according to the Energy Information Administration. Today, gas is averaging just over $2.62 a gallon.
Back then, the couple really wanted to get rid of Robert's GMC Jimmy and get something more fuel-efficient but could not afford to do so.
In the fall, that changed.
"We finally did get a smaller car. We had no choice," Gina Pierce said. "We borrowed some money from my in-laws and got a smaller car because it was really killing us."
That car has helped them deal with higher gas prices, but if the prices keep going up, "we're still not going to be happy," she said.
But just in time for summer and the family road trip, gas prices are just doing that.
After hitting an all-time high of $4.05 a gallon right after the July 4th weekend last year, gas prices started to fall. As the recession spread around the globe, individuals and companies started using less petroleum. Additionally, more and more Americans lost their jobs, eliminating their daily commune.
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