Funny Money Friday: The Amazing Shrinking Groceries
Money doesn't have to be boring! Each week, CreditBloggers.com takes a look at the lighter side of the personal finance world in a series called Funny Money Friday.
If the rising cost of gas isn't enough to get your goat, here's another reason for your blood pressure to creep up: Grocery manufacturers have been quietly shrinking the size of their products and keeping the prices the same.
That's right, your weekly bag of groceries is getting lighter. To combat rising expenses and inflation, many manufacturers have started dropping a couple ounces from their packages without notice.
The Consumerist has been keeping a running tab of products hit by the "grocery shrink ray" including diapers, yogurt, cereal, chips, beer, cat food, garbage bags, juice, ice cream and more. Some products are shrinking by as much as 25%. You're left with paying the same price, but getting less.
For Funny Money Friday, we've thought of some other ways this "shrink gun" idea could be leveraged for solutions to America's problems:
- We won't have to pay $5 a gallon if a gallon shrinks down to only 3 liters. It's a minor .78 litters difference and would lower the cost to $3.70. Think of how happy the lower price could make you!
- What job losses? American companies have just been shrinking down to "fun size" for the past six months.
- Chop off the extra bedroom from your suburban home and that 30% drop in your equity won't seem so bad after all.
On the plus side, between the rising cost of gas forcing people to walk or bike more and shrinking food sizes we may just be winning the war on obesity!
Emily Davidson – Credit.com's financial expert and former TransUnion credit bureau insider. Emily writes about credit reports, credit cards, loans and personal finance as the CreditBloggers.com editor.
Shrinking size of paychecks by employers too. More work and less pay
Posted by: Rob Schmidt | July 08, 2008 at 03:05 PM