The rising cost of living is forcing consumers to take drastic measures.

One option for those strapped for cash is a quick trip to the neighborhood pawn shop where business these days is anything but usual.

"Most of the people can't afford nothing," one Bryan Resident said. "So therefore we have to come here and pawn everything."

It's a growing trend, that's becoming reality for some in the Brazos Valley.

"I need to go pay a bill and get some diapers for my baby," one resident said.

Sky high prices at the pump, and the check-out line are leading more and more people to the local pawn shop looking for a quick shot at making back some money.

"People are pawning more valuable items nowadays," Sidney Smith with Lone Star Pawn said. "Some people with gun collections have started to sell them or pawn them because they need money."

Smith says he's never seen anything like it. People coming in looking for loans, or to sell items, all so they can hit the road.

"Everybody needs gas money," Smith said. "I had a lady this morning come in needing to go to Houston to get her son out of the hospital and needed gas money."

It's becoming a familiar tune that Sidney says has people bringing in all sorts of items.

"We've had prosthetic limbs, but we don't take them anymore," Smith said. "But you name it and we've seen it."

Prized possessions like jewelry, TV's and even video games are becoming the norm for people to part with.

"Show me it works," Smith says to a customer.

The owner of a Playstation 2 says he's willing to sacrifice a little bit of fun, in the name of responsibility.

"I got to do what I got to do to get her(his child) food and diapers and stuff like that," he said.

The pawn shop is also allowing customers who pawn their items to now have 90 days to reclaim it before it's put out on the showroom floor. Management at Lone Star Pawn says having the 90 rule in effect, instead of the standard 60 days allows more of their clientele to buy back their possessions.