Spending calculator: See which prices have gone up or down – and how much a pint of milk costs compared with last year

Prices have increased over the past 12 months by nearly 10% on average, putting pressure on already stretched household budgets.

A cut in fuel prices has allowed some respite compared with July, but the rising cost of food, caused in part by the energy crisis, has offset that.

Higher energy prices have wide-ranging knock-on effects, in terms of increased production and delivery costs, that cause prices to rise across almost every other thing you buy.

How much has your individual spending gone up? Use our calculator to see how much prices are rising on the groceries, clothing, and leisure activities you pay for.

Which prices are increasing fastest?

Children’s clothes are among the shop-bought goods that have had the highest price rises. They have gone up by 16.5% on average but some items have seen even more extreme rises.

Boys’ jeans have gone up by more than 50%, from £18.33 to £28.77. A girl’s jacket will also cost about £10 more than it did this time last year, rising from £22.51 to £32.70.

Dairy products have seen the biggest rise of any food category, particularly milk. Semi-skimmed costs a third more than last year (30p over two pints) while whole milk has risen by about a quarter (30p over four pints).

Eggs have managed to stay at pretty much the same price as they were in 2021, however.

Some other food basics have shot up in price. A tin of baked beans costs 31% more than last year (21p). A 500g bag of pasta/spaghetti costs 25p more than in 2021, a rise of 29%. Canned soup is up by a quarter, or 21p, while butter is up by 79p (also a quarter).

Top five food price rises:

• Semi-skimmed milk: up 35%, 84p to £1.14
• Baked beans (400-425g): up 32%, 66p to 87p
• Pasta/spaghetti (500g): up 29%, 86p to £1.11
• Canned soup: up 26%, 81p to £1.02
• Fruit drink (4-8): up 25.6%, £1.82 to £2.29

There are foods that have become cheaper in the last year, though not by much. Other than cereal bars where a 3p decrease equates to a 10% fall in price, nothing has gone down by more than 2%.

Overall, only 52 out of the 524 products in our database are cheaper than they were this time last year.

Top five food price falls:

• Cereal bar: down 10%, 30p to 27p
• Sliced deli meat: down 1.8%, £2.19 to £2.15
• Rice pouch (220-280g): down 1.1%, 92p to 91p
• Peppers (1kg): down 1%, 92p to 91p
• Large eggs (12): down 0.8%, £2.49 to £2.47

Read more:
Fall in fuel costs helps inflation ease to 9.9% in August

Other items have gone down in price by more. A saucepan is about 17% cheaper on average (£12.36 now compared with £14.92 in 2021).

Football boots are down 16% to £54 and women’s handbags are about £22 cheaper.

No category out of 25 has seen an overall decrease in prices across all items though. Clothes are closest with a 0.4% rise on average.

Is it more expensive to live a healthy lifestyle?

Vegetables have become 9% more expensive in the last year, while fruit is up 7%. That’s slower than the rate for meat, which has risen by more than 11%.

Alcohol has only gone up by 4% on average, about half the rate of other drinks.

You will notice more of a difference if you like to drink out, however. The average pint of lager in a pub is 28p more than last year, an 8% rise.

Is there worse to come?

Richard Lim, chief executive of Retail Economics, says that we’re still at the “thin edge of the wedge of inflation”.

“There’s still a lot more pain to come,” he says. “And it’s the least affluent households that are going to see much higher rates of inflation as they spend more of their income on food and energy.”

We’ll continue to update our spending calculator over the coming months so you can see how you’ll be affected.

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Methodology

The ONS collects these prices by visiting thousands of shops across the country and noting down the prices of specific items. There are upwards of 100,000 prices published every month, from more than 600 products.

The items that form the “official shopping basket” change each year to reflect how the purchasing habits of the population have changed. For example in March 2021, after a year of the pandemic, hand gel, loungewear bottoms and dumbbells were added, while canteen-bought sandwiches were among the items removed.

Where there aren’t the exact equivalent items available at a survey shop, ONS officials pick the best alternative and note that they’ve done this so it’s weighted correctly when the averages are worked out.

Shops are weighted as well, so the price in a major chain supermarket will have a greater impact on the average than an independent corner shop.

To get our figures, we’ve made an average for each item in each month that takes into account the weightings of these shops and the month of the entry, so more recent price information is weighted more heavily. We’ve ended up with a figure that takes into account every price entry from the previous 12 months. We will be updating these figures each month while the cost of living crisis continues.

During the pandemic, more of the survey was carried out over the phone and work is ongoing to digitise the system to be able to take in more price points by getting data from supermarket receipts, rather than making personal visits.

Data journalists: Daniel Dunford, Amy Borrett
Interactive: Ganesh Rao
Design: Phoebe Rowe, Brian Gillingham

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.