How a shrinking economy can shrink our wastelines

As gas hit four bucks a gallon today, I struggle to find a positive spin.  Then, I thought, maybe this will help me get skinny.  How?  Well, when gas prices go up, so does the price of everything else.  At my local farmer's market, I literally see them changing price tags as I shop.  Wow, that 5lb bag of apples was 5 bucks when I walked in and now is 6?  That's amazing.  When you are on a small budget, there are usually a good deal of fixed expenses, mortgage/rent, car payment, utilities etc.  There is one flexible expense and that is food.  We can either cut back on quantity or quality.  And make sacrifices.  We buy a smaller portion of pasta instead of going to Macaroni Grill. Both may trim us.  The other secret stores employ that help us keep fit, is to keep prices the same, but reduce the amount.  Remember when ice cream used to come in half gallon cartons?  No more.  You'll be hard pressed to find a half gallon of mint choco-chip.  For the same price you'll get usually 25% less.  Oh, well, that's 25% less that will go to our waste lines.