WASHINGTON - US families boosted their outlays last month although their take-home income only posted a slight up-tick, the US Commerce Department reported on Friday.

US personal income rose 0.2 percent last month. Real personal consumption expenditures (PCE), consumption after adjusting for inflation, rose 0.8 percent in February partly triggered by surging gas prices, according to the report.

The US savings rate, personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income, edged down to 3.7 percent last month from 4.3 percent in January, evidence that US households dipped into savings to finance their daily expenses.

The level still remained well above the 2.1 percent average savings rate for all of 2007 before the financial crisis.