In Cleveland, Marion Charvat paid $1.09 a gallon when she filled up. She filled her Volkswagen Jetta for only $12.45. In that same time period Kellie Courtney paid only 89 cents per gallon of gas. How could they pay such a low price for gas? They were able to pay those low prices because they used the same principles that all smart consumers use.

The reason that Kellie and Marion were able to purchase gas at such a low price is that they treated gas like it was any other item that they would go to a store to buy. They shopped around and they found a way to purchase their gas at the store that they found had the absolute lowest cost. They found a frequent shopper program that allowed them to lower their gas cost. They found it at a grocery chain called Giant Eagle.

Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia is where Giant Eagle currently has stores. Giant Eagle has created a new addition to their frequent buyer program. Fuelperks is the name of the program. It offers discounts on gas at Get- Go gas stations that are owned and operated by Giant Eagle.

For every $50.00 of purchases using the frequent shopper card the consumer will get a 10 cent reduction in the price of gas for one tank fill up. Purchase $100.00 worth; get 20 cents off a gallon. Purchase $500.00 worth and get $1.00 off a gallon. Buy enough groceries and you can get gasoline for free.

The prices in Giant Eagle stores are the same as other groceries in the area so they are not making up the discounts by gouging on grocery prices. Likewise the Get-Go price on fuel is in line with competitors. That means that this program produces real world savings, not artificial savings. A big family that buys a lot of food every week will earn big discounts very quickly.

You have to buy groceries somewhere; you might as well buy it a store that gives you a substantial discount on gas while you are at it. That is one way to beat the gas pump. You don't have to do business at Giant Eagle to find low prices like this. You can do it anywhere.

Treat gas like anything else that you buy. Look for the best deals. Look for frequent shopper programs in your neighborhood that allow you to build up discounts you can use towards gas. Look for gas discounts and incentives anywhere you see a gas pump. Look for stores that may be branching out into the frequent shopper area or stores that now sell gas that didn't before.

In order to remain competitive a lot of stores that had not done so in the past have started selling fuel. This new competition has forced many convenience stores that sell fuel to start offering frequent buyer programs of their own. Those programs can help drop your gas costs. In addition, numbers of stores that never sold fuel before are now offering gasoline. As in the case of Giant Eagle they understand that lower gas costs is a way to increase traffic in their stores. As a result you have more ways to lower your gas costs.

Last year, more than 60% of new stores included gas pumps. That is in contrast to only 18% the previous year based on information from the Food Marketing Institute. As they start offering gas to you as a loss leader to get you into their stores, you can get lower prices on gas.

The giant stores like Wal-Mart / Sam's Club are now a significant force in the fuel station industry. The VP in charge of fuel for Wal-Mart wants to create gas stations at every Sam's Club. That translates into lower fuel prices for you.

So how can you lower your gas costs? Treat gas like any other item you purchase. Look for deals, discounts and low prices. Comparison shop. Find the retailers that offer the best program for you. Look for gas bargains at some of the non traditional outlets like grocery stores or mega stores. Then maybe you will be able to buy that tank of gas for 89 cents a gallon like Kellie Courtney did.