I was in in Walgreens the other day and saw box of instant Nestle hot chocolate for 99 cents. I thought that was okay deal, so I thought that I would buy it. Then I looked closer at the box and saw that there were only SIX envelopes of the instant cocoa, instead of the TEN that they had previously. What a rip-off!

It seems that companies are scaling way back and charging the same price for items (and hopefully we won't notice). What have you come across lately?

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I just bought a box of Swiss Miss no sugar hot chocolate and they have 8 instead of 10. I also bought a box of the Nestle peppermint hot chocolate, and was very disappointed, not only were there only 6 envelopes it didn't have a peperminty taste to it like I expected. IMO it tasted just like regular hot chocolate. I have noticed that the price of single candy bars have also gone up. I remember when they were 49-59 cents each, now I am seeing them from 89 cents up to 1.29.

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~~~~**Maryann**~~~~

I just got a firm grip on reality....
Now I can strangle it

Yes I've noticed that prices of things are climbing like crazy and/or packages are getting smaller. How about toilet paper!? OMG, it's crazy! I saw some packages at a Big Lots of 4 rolls, it was so stupid...it looked like a doll house toilet paper it was so small! About the only place to get decent TP is at Sam's Club.

Anyway the prices are not just kind of going up, in some cases they are just doubling in price over night! It's funny, our income isn't doubling though now is it?

Dole OJ changed from 64 oz to 59 oz in the same size carton. I noticed it immediately the first time I picked the carton up because there was so much slosh around in the carton. When I complained I was told this is how consumers want it, meaning no price increase. It's the same difference no matter how you go about it.
TP is a joke!! The manufacturers try to make the consumer think they're getting this awesome deal with BIG size rolls, double size and even triple size. I'm no spring chicken and I can never remember TP actually being this tiny roll that is called a regular size roll.
Crystal Light redesigned their packaging and when I complained about the 1 qt sticks and how this was very misleading I was told that nothing had changed except for the design. To the best of my knowledge, there were never 1 qt canisters, only 2 qts. According to the manufacturer the pricing is still the same also.

I hate this little trick! You have to be careful and savvy these days and even then you might get ripped off.

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I went grocery shopping over the weekend and I bought what I thought was a 5lb bag of sugar. Nope, it's 4lbs now. Same price of course.

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They have been doing that with diapers for years now, seems like every 6 months or so they take another 2 diapers out.

I keep wondering how small the "can" of coffee can get before it just disappears?

I have mixed feeling about this little trick. From an environmental standpoint- I hate the extra waste created by the tiny containers. And, I wonder how much more expensive it is to produce say 3 cans of coffee at 11.5ozs each when you used to get nearly the same amount in 2 cans. It also makes recipes a nightmare at times, because a recipe that used to call for a full can of something now requires the can plus a guesstimate trick!

I also dislike this "solution" because temporary price increases and shortages end up becoming long term price hikes, in essence. We all know we'll never see gallons of ice cream again, even though the price of dairy isn't as high as it once was. It costs the companies involved way too much money to re-design and manufacture the packaging.

However, from a couponing standpoint, I'm glad many companies aren't raising prices. If for example, Swiss Miss raised their 10 packs to $1.60 on sale, I could never get them for free using a doubled 50¢ coupon. However, I can still get 6 envelopes for free on occasion. So, while I mostly dislike the trend, there are certain advantages for people that really work the sales and coupons!

For real, I bought a "can" of Folger's the other day and it was 10.3 oz. for $3.89, luckily I had a 1.00 coupon that doubled and only had to pay $1.89 for it. But didn't coffee used to be in a 12oz or 16 oz real can? I don't drink coffee, I just buy it for DH, so I don't pay that much attention to the sizes, I just know he has to have it, lol. But I know the real cans as opposed the these plastic ones seemed much bigger?

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I bought cat food yesterday. I went to put it away today and noticed it was 16 pounds. It used to be 17.5 pounds (and I'm sure it probably used to 20 pounds at some point). I don' t know when they changed that because that bag I threw out was 16 pounds. They got me on that one for a while.

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

Just went to buy our favorite French Vanilla coffee...was paying 2/7.00 today the price is $4.48 a pack! UGH! That's just a ridiculous increase practically over night!

I was LMAO at my SIL, she's married to my brother that thinks he can't live without his caffeine...She was making him DECAF without him knowing it(sneaking) and he was just going on about how he has to have his coffee to wake him up!

Well, look at K-cups!

Yeah really, talk about a consumer rip-off! $$$$

How about ice cream? Most went from 64oz to 56, now they're 48. Why have 48 AND a 32oz(quart)??? I am freakin' sick of this. It is EVERYTHING. Tuna is now 5oz, used to be 7oz. Some pasta is 12 oz. I pointed this out to my son last week when he wanted bow ties. 4oz of pasta is a lot. Most veggies now are 12 oz too. Mayo really pisses me off too!! Can ya tell you hit a pet peeve of mine?????? I'll get off the soap box now.

I'm with you on the TP, I look at these "double rolls" and think "My Azz that's double!" A single roll of tp should last more than a day, but not with the new sizing!
It's all over the place, I hate it! Charge me the extra few cents and be done with it.
They are screwing up recipes as was said also. You wonder why your food seems dry or whatever, it's because the can/jar was several ounces larger when the recipe was written! AArg!

I use the Arm & Hammer spray shower cleaner to refill my daily automatic shower sprayer instead of buying the 'real' stuff. Works just as well. Anyway, I went to fill the bottle up the other day and it barely made it to the top. Usually I have about 1/4 bottle left over. Same price, though!

Our favorite brownie mix (Betty Crocker Supreme) just cut their packages down from making a 9X13 pan to making an 8X8 pan. And the price went up 10 cents :-(

Just went back to the store in question and it is still $4.48 only now they are putting it in their ad with a big sign "AS ADVERTISED"! Since when do stores mark things UP for ads? I guess that's the new thing...the ads will be full of price INCREASES instead of reductions. HAHA! Well apparently so!