Not long ago, Kellie Courtney of Cleveland paid only 89 cents per gallon of gas. Marion Charvat paid $1.09 a gallon. Marion filled her Volkswagen Jetta for only $12.45. How could they buy gas so cheap? They did it because they are smart consumers. Here's how they did it.

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.

This grocery chain has stores in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia. A new addition to the frequent shopping program at Giant Eagle is called Fuelperks. It provides the consumers discounts on gas at Giant Eagle's own gas stations, the Get-Go chain.

Shoppers get a 10 cent price reduction per gallon for one tank fill up for every $50.00 of purchases in Giant Eagle stores. If one purchases $100.00 of items a 20 cent reduction is earned. $500.00 of purchases gets $1.00 off a gallon. If a consumer spends enough in the stores it is possible to get gasoline for free.

A large family that has to buy a lot of groceries every week will very quickly earn large discounts at the gas pump. The prices at Giant Eagle are in line with most of the other groceries in the area and their regular price on gas is in line with other gas stations so you really are getting a legitimate discount on gas.

What if you don't have a Giant Eagle store where you live? You can still apply the same principle to the way you approach buying gas and still find yourself with significant savings. You need to be a price conscious buyer. You need to do your research.

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 compete with the new grocery gas stations many gas convenience stores are beginning to implement frequent shopper programs that will result in lower gas costs. But more and more traditional stores that never sold gas before are realizing that discount gas is a big incentive to get shoppers. Giant Eagle is one example of a traditional grocery store branching out to sell gas at a discount.

In the past year, 60% of newly built grocery stores included fuel pumps. That is up from 18% the year before. This is from studies done by the Food Marketing Institute. The more outlets there are the more discount programs that will be available.

The mega stores like Wal-Mart / Sam's Club are getting into the gas business in a big way. Putting gas pumps at every Sam's Club is what the VP in charge of fuel for Wal-Mart is looking to do. That means lower gas costs for all of us.

Comparison shop all the time. Look for discount fuel programs at places like big box retailers or grocery stores. Always watch for low prices and deals. Approach gas like other commodities you purchase. Locate the outlets that have the program you deem the best for you. If you do this, you could find yourself filling your car up and only paying 89 cents per gallon.