stay there and take this or have you thought about picking up and moving to a different state? i think they re running us out of here, it is out of control. costs are out of control. nick, what do you think, have you thought about switching states and working somewhere else? we ve been in the same location since 1949, i don t think we are going anywhere, here a huge staple in san diego. we don t plan to go anywhere, but there are times where we can t exactly be prepared for something like that. you mention minimum wage. we re able to get a heads up for a couple months for minimum wage and able to increase many prices. as far as what sdg needed, they dropped it on us december 30, just to let you know, your bill will go up to $3.49.
cnn s matt egan joins us now. what does this mean for americans, bottom line? reporter: jessica, after a year of painfully high gas prices this is some encourages news here. gas buddy projects that next year the national average will be $3.49 a gallon. now, that is down roughly 50 cents from this year, and so that means that americans may be spending a little less at the gas station and have a little more money for everything else in life and transfers to about $55 billion less spending by u.s. consumers on gasoline. that translates to almost $300 on average per family for the whole year. so all of that is the good news. in is some bad news, though, here, and that is that gas buddy expects gas prices to go up by this spring and summer as americans hit the road again. they see the national average going from about $3.10 a gallon today to as high as $4.5 a gallon as soon as may and
compared to this year. gasp buddy sees pump prices coming in at $3.49 a gallon in 2023. that s down about 50 cents a gallon from this year. that is nothing to sneeze at. it translates to the average family saving almost $300 over the course of a year. unfortunately, though, gadbuddy is warning 2023 is not going to be a cakewalk. they see gas prices going back above $4 a gallon as soon as may. peaking at around $4.25 a gallon in august. that, of course, is way too high and it would come after what can only be described as an insane year for energy prices. listen to what patrick duhon told me about what we ve seen this year and what s expected for next year. you know, curveballs coming from every direction sums up 2022. i don t think we ve ever seen such amount of volatility as we
modernizing the operations. let s talk about gas prices. our colleague matt egan has interesting reporting on the fact that there are going to be less beginning of this new year, but then more? yes. so gas prices have been really volatile. anyone who owns a car, who has filled up their tank this year me. me too. you know prices have been all over the place. so gas buddy just put out its new forecast for 2023 and the forecast for the year is about $3.49 a gallon t. that doesn t mean we ll be taking at $3.49 all year. we re tracking this year to end the year at $3.99. that s still about 50 cents savings per gallon. that should mean about $270 for the average american family. that said, this sort of caveat is there is a high level of volatility and uncertainty. so, that is the hope and we should say that gas buddy was pretty much right on the dot this year round. here is hoping. the government forecast is the same, about $3.49 a gallon.
tend to go higher, and refineries switch over to summer gasoline and it s cleaner for the air and also more expensive. we will enter the spring/summer bump from an already elevated level. the national average will go from $3.10 right now, to as high as 4.05 a gallon in may and peaking at $4.25 a gallon in august, and that s uncomfortably high. there s some good news here. this is not all gloom and doom. gas buddy says the national average for next year is going to be $3.49 a gallon, and that s down 50 cents from this year. americans would spend $55 billion less if that forecast comes true. for the average family that works out to almost $300 less than this year over the course of the year. of course, there s a lot of wild cards here. everything from the war in ukraine to hurricanes to a