AAA ranks TN as the 6th least expensive state for gasoline

Gas prices reached their highest recorded price last month. The Tennessee gas price average is now around 60 cents less expensive than it was in June, but over a dollar more per gallon from one year ago.

In the latest report from AAA,  the Volunteer State was ranked as being the 6th least expensive state for gas, and Chattanooga was ranked as being one of the cheapest Metro markets, beating Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis.

Tennessee gas price average fell below $4.00 per gallon last week for the first time since May 5th. Patrick De Haan is an energy analyst with GasBuddy, a service that shows people where to find the best savings at the pump. He said he has seen user participation sky-rocket in the last few months.

“You know watching our numbers absolutely exploded in April in May as prices went up. Consumers are looking for ways to fight back against the high prices. Oftentimes, the Gas Buddy app sees a surge in popularity as prices surge. And then as they decline motorists looking for those lower prices as well,” said De Haan. “We’ve seen a dramatic increase the amount of users signed up, generally for the pay with Gas Buddy card. We have seen an increase in users using the app, but we’ve seen a massive surge in the people signing up for that free pay card that offers savings of up to 25 cents a gallon.”

Gary Thurman owns Guardian Investment Advisors in Chattanooga. He said with fuel prices affecting the cost of everything, especially groceries, the best thing to do is create a budget and seek advise.

“I mean, this is the largest gas increase we’ve had in gas fuels is 1980. So in 2022, we’re 35% over last year, which is amazing. It really is affected a lot of things. Think about the little things, like the inflation on food right now. A lot of that has to do with the fuel inflation or the gas inflation, because, trucks are having to take the food from the from the warehouse to the stores, and it’s costing them more money,” said Thurman. “I think a lot of folks maybe don’t think they have enough assets to seek financial advising, and that’s not true. We’re here to help everybody. We do help everybody with that. I think it’s intimidating. I think when you come in and you’re going to talk about your money and the money you worked hard for, sometimes that’s a fearful conversation to have, because it comes down to trust.”

Another great way to save is to take advantage of those grocery store reward programs like Food City’s Fuel Bucks program, Kroger’s Fuel Points program, or the Costco Gasoline Cash Back Rewards.