January and February are normally the months that see the lowest gas prices, but right now people are really hurting at the pump.

"Some weeks, it’s hard for me to afford to get back and forth every week; I live in Springville, so driving this far is hard."

A spokesman for AAA of Alabama says part of the problem is a gradual but steady decline in the total national gas inventory over the past eight weeks.

"We're actually at $3.03 for our state average for regular unleaded today, which is just about five cents a gallon less than our all time high, which is very unusual for this time of year," said Clay Ingram of AAA.

He says the gap people are seeing between regular unleaded and the higher grades of gasoline is no illusion.

"The midgrade and premium are really sort of reserved for your higher end model cars: Mercedes, BMWs, things like that, so the demand is much less for that than it is for the unleaded," Ingram said.

But that decrease in demand has not lowered prices in many cases, he noted.

"I think the big oil companies kind of feel like consumers are going to buy the same amount regardless of what the price is, so they're not really motivated to drop the price down as low as they could."

Ingram says the biggest ways to save are cutting back on consumption, combining trips, and price shopping in your area to create healthy competition.

Here’s a link that can help you find the lowest priced gas in your area:

http://www.wiat.com/consumer/8114377.html