Rising cost of living sees shoppers take drastic measures to save

As rising cost of groceries hits Aussies hard, shoppers are taking drastic measures in supermarket aisles to cut costs where possible.

The rising cost of living is seeing everyday Aussies take extra measures in a bid to get more bang for their buck.

One canny shopper gave a tip to others on Facebook group Markdown Addicts Australia, saying it “pays” to check the weight of pre-packaged items, such as fruit, vegetables and meat after an unexpected surprise she had at Woolworths.

But while many praised the advice, others said it was sad to see the drastic efforts people were having to take in a bid to make ends meet in the current financial crisis.

When she weighed the grapes, she realised she had scored around 250g extra. Picture: Facebook/Markdown Addicts Australia

“Cotton Candy grapes, $6.90 for a 400g pack at Woolies,” the customer wrote.

“I picked up a couple of packs to check the quality of the grapes & noticed a difference in the weight. Grabbed a heavier pack and scored!”

When she got home, she weighed the package to discover it was in fact 691g, including 33g of plastic packaging which left 658g of grapes – 258g more than stated on the box.

Social media users had mixed reactions to the weight tip.

“Won’t be long and they’ll start putting the ‘estimated’ symbol on the pack. All about butt covering. Consumers pay more for less and supermarkets know the loopholes,” one person commented.

Another shared their own score when it came to weighted products: “I found a bag of Odd Bunch lemons last week that were almost twice the stated weight. What a score for $3.”

Many shoppers said they also weighed products to get the best deal. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

“Oh wow …. Just wow … the lengths that some people seem to go,” another added.

One person, who used to work in a cheese factory, vouched for the logic of weighing your pre-packaged items at the grocery store.

“Sometimes our 200g brie and cam [camembert] cheeses were 120g over in weight, so weighing products is always a good idea. I use the fruit scales while in store when I buy soft cheese,” the shopper shared.

Another tagged their friend, thinking the advice may help them at the checkout.

“Might be able to save on ya groceries mate. Except the time it takes to go through them all to see which weighs more,” the person wrote.