php regex I need extract certain data from a string

Even though this is not a regexp-based idea, you could solve your problem by splitting your string based on " " and then observing where you have text, in which case on the left and right edge you have numbers that go with that text. Something like this:

 $texts[0], "b" => $texts[1]];
}

$arr = splitMyText($str);

foreach ($arr as $key => $el) {
    var_export($el);
}

and then you can use it as

list($a, $b) = splitMyText("");

array (
  0 => '3.30',
  1 => '2.20',
  2 => '2.10',
  3 => '3.80',
  4 => '2.40',
  5 => '2.10',
)array (
  0 => '$1.00 six years ago 5.80',
  1 => '$0.10 today is 1.52',
  2 => '$0.50 now 4.45',
)