Gas prices here in Charleston, West Virginia have been vascillating between $3.79 and $3.89 per gallon for the past couple of weeks.  When the kids and I were driving past the group of four gas stations — Go Mart, Chevron, Speedway, and Exxon – in our immediate area yesterday afternoon, we noticed the price had gone up to $3.95 per gallon at all four stations.  Ouch!

I recently learned of a website that has information about gas prices throughout the U.S. and Canada.  It’s called gasbuddy.com.  It has up-to-the-minute data, as reported by volunteer spotters.  With this handy website, one can easily determine which gas station in their area has the lowest prices before a fill-up, which may result in a savings of 10 or 20 cents per gallon.

I played around with gasbuddy.com this evening, and discovered that gas prices in Alaska are currently the highest in the U.S. at an average of $4.25 per gallon, while Arizona has the cheapest gas at around $3.50 per gallon.  The average gas price in West Virginia is near the high end of the spectrum.  The website also has a chart with historical gas prices, going back to 2002, when gas in the U.S. averaged $1.31 per gallon.  Those were the good ol’ days.  

I doubt if we’ll ever see gasoline priced at $1.31 per gallon again at the rate we’re going, but with gasbuddy.com, we can make the best of this expensive gasoline situation.