Rising costs begin to pinch consumers

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14590264/

While prices at the gas pumps get a lot of attention, other increases are pulling at Americans' pocketbooks from a variety of directions.

"We see it daily as far as everything we need for the kids; groceries, the little one still in diapers; anything that has to do with the house," said Mary Ann Ray, 32, a registered nurse and mother of two in suburban Union Township just east of Cincinnati.

Besides spending $10 to $15 more to fill up her minivan than she did a year or so ago, she ticks off a litany of other higher prices squeezing the once-comfortable household budget of her and her husband, the product development director for an educational software company. They include over-the-counter drugs, delivery pizzas, baby formula.

"It's all the little things," she said. "What I see is that you get your typical raises for work, but it seems like everything gets more expensive."