Gas prices are painfully high and many want to know when they will stop rising. Sure, there are apps that list areas as prices to help find the cheapest. For those in Illinois, there's a glimmer of hope and saving money by fueling up in Wisconsin but not everyone lives close enough to justify the drive. Unless your car is racking up 40+ miles per gallon it's a waste of trip when you factor in time and distance if you're not close.

gas
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I just happened to be in Beloit, Wisconsin over the weekend and decided to top off a half-tank for $4.69 a gallon, I considered that a win. Before I filled my tank I walked around the store to see what was cheaper than a gallon of gas in Northern Illinois, which floated at around $5 a gallon.

Things Cheaper Than Gas In Northern Illinois (Rockford)

  • Starbuck's Double Shot
  • 2 bottles of Coke products (2 for $3.50)
  • A double package of Orbit gum
  • A small bag of ice
  • A packaged sub sandwich
Gas Price Humor
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Drivers in Illinois continue to enthusiastically fill their gas tanks while it seems like nobody is doing anything to slow down the skyrocketing prices. How far off are people from having to call into work simply because they can't afford to fill their tank? That isn't a facetious question, it's reality.

How bad has it become?

The answer is far from good. Gas prices at this time last year were substantially lower even though, at the time, we thought they were high. According to WCCU, the average gas price was at $3.28 a gallon. The things many drivers would do to see those prices again.

How are Illinois' prices compared to around the U.S.?

At the end of last, the first weekend of June 2022, the average cost of gas per gallon was $5.31. That same report by WCCU reveals Wisconsin is at #25 on the list for highest gas prices in America. Illinois sits substantially higher at #6. You can find the entire list here.

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.

LOOK: See the iconic cars that debuted the year you were born

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