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The federal government reported Thursday that inflation rose 7.5% over the past year. That's the highest rate in 40 years, and it's taking a bite out of family budgets.Food, clothing, cars, gas and electricity are things everyone spends money on, but they are also things that are largely driving this surge in consumer prices."Everything. Everything's up," Tina Cavelli said."It certainly is a challenge when prices go up and incomes don't," Christopher Stawski said.Some staples are rising more slowly, clothing is up just over 5%.But the impact of inflation is hitting hardest in some other basic areas."It's definitely becoming a big challenge with like cars, just overall gas prices especially," Val Baird said.Cars and gas are two of the big drivers of the soaring Consumer Price Index.New cars are up 12.2% in the past year, while used cars have risen 40.5%.Gas prices are also up 40%.Another energy category, electricity, has seen a 10.7% increase."You've got kind of this perfect storm of lots of demand, limited supply, that's going to mean higher prices, and that's what we're looking at right now," Concordia University economist Scott Niederjohn said.Niederjohn said workforce and supply chain issues are driving the price hikes but perhaps nowhere is it more visible to the average consumer than in the supermarket aisles.People can see that inflation right before their eyes when they see those prices at the grocery store."Right, because everybody had a sense of what they spend each month," Niederjohn said. Overall, food items are up nearly 7.5% but some, such as a pound of bacon, for example, have soared 30% to 40%.Niederjohn said bills aren't likely to come down anytime soon."Are grocery bills going to continue to go up?" Wainscott asked."I think in the short term, for sure," Niederjohn said.The omicron spike in cases in December and January led to huge workforce shortages, further slowing the supply chain.The supply of products is down, demand is up and so are the prices.