For a lot of us, we hate to see that final total when we are filling up gas tanks in our vehicles.

Last June we were paying over $5 a gallon. Since that time, prices have slowly dropped -- fluctuating a bit along the way.

As of last weekend, some gas stations in West Michigan have prices at under $3 a gallon for unleaded gasoline.

Where Is the Cheapest Gas in West Michigan?

Gas prices at the pump
Karimala/ThinkStock/GettyStock
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While I was driving through Greenville last weekend, I notice gas a just over the $3 mark. When I checked prices on gasbuddy.com on Monday, those prices had made it below the $3 mark.

Since the early part of the week, several gas stations have also made it below $3 per gallon threshold. It looks like the cheapest gas can be found now not only Greenville, but also Sparta, Coopersville, and Allendale. The cheapest gas I could find on the gasbuddy.com map was at the Murphy USA gas station in Greenville. They were selling gas for $2.94 a gallon when this article was written. Most of the stations in the metro Grand Rapids area are at somewhere between $3.45 and $3.65 a gallon. Saranac has gas for a whopping $3.79 a gallon.

When Was The Last Time Gas Was Under $3?

Ahhh the good old days...3.09 a gallon!/Getty Images
Ahhh the good old days...3.09 a gallon!/Getty Images
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According to my records that I keep when filling up my gas tank, the last time we were under the $3 a gallon mark was about this same time last year. We had gas prices of about $2.70 per gallon right around Christmas Day.

Why Are Gas Prices Dropping?

Falling Gas Prices
Photo: Canva
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According to Gas Buddy, prices have declined for a couple of reasons. One is that we are driving less -- we are done with vacations and summer and fall travel. People also drive less in wintery weather. Crude oil prices are also falling.

According to AAA, the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas on Sunday was $3.44 a gallon.

How low can we go?! Let's hope the downward trend continues for awhile.

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

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