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Study: 49% of Floridians staying home for Thanksgiving due to cost of gas

Traveling is one more thing that has gotten more expensive, experts say
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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A new study by QuoteWizard found that 49% of Floridians will be staying home for Thanksgiving, because of high gas prices.

“It’s gonna be good to see the family over there and share a turkey," Paul Masaracchio told WPTV.

Masaracchio, who lives in West Palm Beach, is getting ready to hit the road and head to Naples for Thanksgiving.

“Visiting my father-in-law and brother and sister-in-law," he said.

Other Floridians are choosing to celebrate at home this year to save money.

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Paul Masaracchio is looking forward to getting on the road to visit family for the holiday.

“We don’t have the money, everything else is eating it up," said Arnie, who didn't want to share his last name. “Everybody’s living for food and gas right now. I don’t travel very far. We’re gonna eat at home.”

A new study by QuoteWizard found that 49% of Floridians are making the same decision this year due to the cost of gas.

"We also found that 33% of people decided to carpool and combine trips. 12% of people are increasingly relying on public transportation," said Nick VinZant, senior PR specialist for QuoteWizard.

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Senior PR Specialist Nick VinZant explains the different ways people are trying to save money on traveling.

According to American Automobile Association, the average price of gas in Florida right now is $3.42 a gallon, which is down 10 cents over the past seven days. However, it is still up 12 cents from last month.

With inflation, many Floridians WPTV spoke with are trying to save wherever they can right now.

"It’s one more thing that has gotten more expensive and I think that that has had an affect and really resulted in people changing their driving plans,” VinZant said.

However for some, the extra mileage around the holidays is worth every penny.

“We’re looking forward to it," Masaracchio said. “A dime there, a nickel there, it’s not gonna make a difference. The objective is being together.”