More than half of Americans say everyday life has become less affordable, and many are cutting back to keep up.

Prices are rising for many Americans, with 65% of consumers saying the increases are outpacing their income, according to a J.D. Power survey of 4,000 U.S. adults conducted in February 2026.

Recent inflation data adds to that pressure, with the annual rate rising from 2.4% in February to 3.3% in March, according to consumer price index data released Friday. The increase was driven largely by a surge in energy costs as gasoline prices spiked amid the Iran war. Gasoline prices rose 21.2% in March, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the overall increase, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

  • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
    9·
    2 days ago

    I got a box of ice cream pops a few weeks ago.

    It had three in the box.

    I could swear I’ve bought the exact same kind before and it had four. Not only did the shrinkflation annoy me, but 3? Something about that rubs me the wrong way, but I can’t quite articulate it. It just seems like a very weird number to pick. Right? Am I alone in thinking this?

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
      2·
      1 day ago

      My mom has a box a day habit of those little Dove ice cream nuggets. A while back they went from 10 in a box to 6, and the price stayed the same. You can’t do that to an addict, they don’t take it well.

    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
      2·
      1 day ago

      same goes with bars, like gronala, fruit bars,etc. i have seen from 6-5,. the bougie ones like gomarco,etc are too expensive for a fruit bar.

    • shirasho@feddit.onlineEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      Having a prime number in the box makes fights more likely since it isnt divisible. If you are sharing, somebody is going to miss out.

      • NotEasyBeingGreen@slrpnk.net
        2·
        1 day ago

        In a somewhat related prime number incident, we have the term “baker’s dozen”, meaning 13. This is because bakers were found to be reducing the size of loaves of bread, and the government required that they include 13 when they sold 12 to make up for the discrepancy. So shrinkflation has been going on basically forever…

      • NotEasyBeingGreen@slrpnk.net
        1·
        1 day ago

        Any prime number is divisible by itself though? So you can split a box of 3 amongst 3 people. Remember that 2 is also prime, and you can’t split a box of 2 or 4 between 3 people.

        Anyway, I think the bigger issue is the 25% reduction from 4 in a box to 3 in a box, and we can be plenty annoyed and/or outraged at that. 😆