Gas is expensive. Study shows the best day of the week to buy cheap gas in SC
Gas prices in many states, including South Carolina, are more than 50% higher than they were a year ago. At that time, fuel prices had yet to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic tanking the market for gasoline, as Americans stayed home and canceled trips.
A new study from GasBuddy, which analyzes gas prices on a daily basis, found the best days of the week to find the cheapest gas prices in each state. For South Carolina, the best day to buy gas is Saturday, while the worst day to buy is Thursday.
However, the best day to buy gas in the rest of the country is Monday.
“When it comes to saving money at the pump, Monday becomes more than the dreaded end of the weekend,” GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis Patrick De Haan said in a press release Tuesday.
South Carolina rarely aligned with the best days to buy gas in other states.
“Though there is variation in daily gas prices across different states, the consensus is that filling up at the beginning or end of the work week, on Monday or Friday, is the best way to save money. Following Monday, Sunday is the cheapest day to fill-up. But even if you can’t always time your fill ups, the golden rule is to always always shop around before filling up,” De Haan said in the press release.
The study arrives as Myrtle Beach gas prices are on the rise, increasing 3.2 cents in the last week to $3.04 a gallon. That’s 5.3 cents higher than a month ago and 86 cents higher than a year ago. The average price across the state was $3.07, which is 7 cents higher than a week ago.
The average fuel price in North Carolina is $3.14 per gallon.
The rise in prices comes as West Texas Intermediate crude, a major bellwether for oil prices in the U.S., hit $88 per barrel, one of the highest prices it has reached in the last seven years.
Oil producers in other countries also have yet to substantially increase production to levels from before the pandemic, so prices have yet to fall to the lows seen in 2019, when gas in South Carolina regularly hovered below $2.50 per gallon.
“With continued concerns over geopolitical tensions and crude oil supply, the small yet noticeable increases are likely to continue,” De Haan said in a separate press release Monday. “The only factor keeping gas prices from rising more substantially is that gasoline demand remains low as winter storms keep motorists closer to home. Once the weather starts to turn and warm gradually, we’ll lose the only restraint to larger price increases.”
This story was originally published February 2, 2022 at 9:04 AM with the headline "Gas is expensive. Study shows the best day of the week to buy cheap gas in SC."
