You may have noticed that some people are almost giddy over the cost to gas up their cars. The prices Americans have been paying at the pump have been dropping for months. According to data from GasBuddy.com, the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline dropped 5.1 cents last week to $2.916.
Gas prices have reached their lowest levels since 2010 and, while steep declines may not continue ahead, expectations are that prices will remain low through the holidays. Lower prices are a financial boon to consumers, particularly those who spend a higher percentage of their incomes putting gas in their vehicles.
According to a MarketWatch report, an American family with two cars that uses 90 gallons of gas a month is saving about $60 from what they were paying in June when the average price at the pump was $3.70.
Economists expect that much of what consumers save at gas stations will be spent elsewhere. Chris Christopher of IHS Global Insight partly based his projection for increased holiday spending — from 3.1 percent in 2013 to 4.2 percent this year — on lower gas prices, which he told USA Today are "very supportive of increased consumer spending."