Over the past two months, Fleming Pawn Shop owner James Davis has seen dozens of men offering up their jewelry, guns and tools for a few precious dollars.

All to fund a trip to the gas station.

High fuel prices are "eating them alive," Mr. Davis said from his Peach Orchard Road shop.

"This is the working man, not the bum or the freeloader," he said, speaking of the mostly male crowd pawning possessions just to drive to work.

With a gallon of unleaded fuel jumping from $2.43 last month to near the $3 mark in Georgia, gasoline prices are affecting the lives of regular folks in expensive ways and forcing them to find alternative modes of transportation.

Earl Driggers, the owner of A-1 Jewelry & Pawn on Gordon Highway, said people are pawning "everything but the kitchen sink" for gas money.

He thinks it has something to do with many people having already spent their tax refunds and not having extra cash for gas.

Augusta residents Walter Watts and his sister Teri Murrah took his Xbox video game system to Mr. Davis' pawnshop Thursday to help fuel the truck they drive for their flooring and tile business.

The day before, he pawned a chain saw for gas money, he said.

They received $55 for the game system, but that is $22 short of the what it costs to fill the truck's tank, he said.

"Fifty-five dollars don't go far," Ms. Murrah said. "Not when you're driving a big truck like that."

Martha Brunson pawned her friend's tool set to help pay for her $563 SCANA natural gas bill Thursday.

"It's a beginning," Ms. Brunson said, pocketing the $15 she received for the tools.

Atlanta resident Fran Curnell knows gas prices aren't expected to drop soon. Since last summer, Mrs. Curnell, a nursing major at Augusta State University, has traveled to the Garden City each week on a Southeastern Stages bus, paying $39.06 each way.

Driving back and forth is just too expensive, she said.

"I just can't afford to take the little money I make part time and invest it in gas at this point," Mrs. Curnell said at the bus station on Greene Street.

Seattle resident Nick Hamilton, 17, estimated a round trip visit to his family in Augusta would have cost $600 in fuel if he had driven his Jeep Grand Cherokee. Instead, he chose to take a three-day bus trip at a cost of $193. After he returns to Seattle, he'll ride his bike to save gas money.

"That won't be a problem," he said.

Reach Kate Lewis at (706) 823-3215 or kate.lewis@augustachronicle.com.