Shop Smarter With the Consumer Reports Price Tracker 2026
As inflation worries mount, we're following the prices of 16 popular products to help you navigate marketplace shifts
If you’re sweating over the price of gasoline these days, not to mention household staples like coffee and paper goods, you’re not alone.
About 40 percent of adults in the U.S. have found paying bills somewhat or very difficult in the past half year, according to a nationally representative survey of 2,212 adults conducted in March 2026 by Consumer Reports. Among those who paid bills late in the past six months, at least a quarter said that financial pressures pushed them to delay paying for their utilities, phone, internet service, cable bills, credit cards, housing (rent or mortgage), medical care, or, yes, groceries.
Consumer Reports' Price Tracker
What to Know
In the past six weeks, gas prices have placed a new strain on household budgets, AAA reports, with the national average for regular unleaded climbing from $2.98 to $4.13 a gallon. That can really put pressure on your monthly expenses, but CR’s auto experts have tips on how to save money at the gas pump. Here’s a summary:
Shop around. Using a smartphone app from AAA, GasBuddy, or Gas Guru, for example, can help you find the best price in your area. We’ve seen rates vary by as much as 80 cents per gallon in the same town.
Look for the best way to pay. Stations often cut you a break for paying in cash, but rewards cards and programs come in handy, too. Don’t assume you’re getting the cash price by using your debit card. Check the prices posted at the pump.
Keep your foot off the accelerator. “Reducing your speed to 65 on the highway can increase fuel economy by as much as 15 to 20 percent,” says Patrick De Haan, a petroleum analyst. By contrast, speeding up from 55 to 75 mph is like moving from a compact car to a large SUV.
Check your tire pressure. Keeping your car tires properly inflated to the pressure indicated on the sticker inside the driver’s door will make the vehicle run more efficiently.
Costlier Gas = Costlier Groceries
Experts at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research project that gas prices will peak at more than $4.25 per gallon in May, adding $857 in new transportation expenses to the average household this year—enough to effectively wipe out the higher tax refunds many American families are counting on.
“Even if the war ends tomorrow, gasoline prices are not going down to where they were before the war, at least not in the short term,” says Ryan Cummings, the institute’s chief of staff. “And that’s happening at an inopportune time, because we’re heading into peak driving season. In the United States, the Fourth of July is typically the busiest weekend of any in the year. And so there’s going to be demand pressure on price, because people are buying more gasoline.
"That’s going to prevent the prices from falling back to where they were—even if all the components of oil costs go down.”
And the downstream impact of higher fuel prices stretches well beyond costlier car trips. “There are all kinds of second-order things that are also going to increase costs for consumers,” Cummings says.
Pricier fuel pushes up airline, trucking, and food prices, too.
Food processing “is incredibly energy intensive and deeply dependent on fossil fuels,” according to a December 2025 report released by the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan policy institute.
As you might predict, higher fuel prices make it more expensive to run farm equipment and transport crops. But there are other, less noticeable effects. For instance, farming relies heavily on nitrogen fertilizers, which are produced using natural gas, and when supplies of natural gas are restricted, food prices tend to rise.
And that means we could be looking at yet more inflation in the grocery aisle. For help offsetting those costs, see our report on the most and least expensive supermarkets.
Shopping Tips
Here are a few more things to keep in mind:
Don’t panic-shop. It’s easy to get caught up in the fear of rising prices, but don’t lose your cool and buy things you’ll regret owning later.
Choose reliable products. Higher prices could persist, so opt for products that are likely to serve you well in the long term. CR members can use our ratings to review the most and least reliable brands in many categories, including dishwashers, dryers, heat pumps, refrigerators, vacuums, and washing machines.
Shop for older models. TVs, laptops, and smartphones that are a year or two old often remain available at stores even after newer models arrive. Now that Apple has introduced the iPhone 17e (starting at $599), for example, you’ll find the 16e priced at $520.
Consider a used or refurbished product. While this advice doesn’t work equally well for all categories, you might find that purchasing a factory-refreshed or gently used appliance, laptop, or phone can save you money. Apple, Best Buy, LG, Samsung, and others certify the items they resell and even offer new warranties.
Use CR for Smart Buys and up-to-the-minute deals. Check out our ratings for help finding products with a nice price and admirable performance. Apple and Samsung both sell well-made, budget-friendly phones, for example. (See the iPhone 17e and Galaxy A25 5G.) They’re much less expensive than flagship models but still do almost everything you want a modern smartphone to do.
Consumer Reports also has a devoted team of deal seekers who continually round up the best bargains on highly rated products. You can find their picks at the CR Deals hub.
