The same shop: £1 then, about £2.40 now
Shopping that cost £1 in 1991 would cost about £2.40 at September 2026 prices, using the ONS broad shopping-basket measure.
Source: ONS CPI all-items index D7BT.
The pound's buying power
Same loaf.
Different number of pounds.
A pound stays a pound on the label. What it buys can change. Petrol, bread, milk and household energy show it in things people pay for every week.
Dated snapshot: 7 November 2026 (GMT), using the latest official figures published by then. Not a live price feed. Usually updated monthly.
Comparisons of what a pound buys
A few comparisons
A few things people pay for every week
The question is simple: how many pounds does the same litre, loaf, pint or amount of household energy take? Each chart has its own scale so a pint of milk is not flattened next to an energy bill.
| Item | Start | Latest | As many pounds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unleaded petrol, a litre | 1991 average: £0.45 | Week of 2 Nov 2026: £1.73 | About 3.8 times |
| White sliced loaf, 800g | 1991 average: £0.53 | January 2025: £1.40 | About 2.6 times |
| Pasteurised milk, a pint | 1991 average: 32.4p | January 2025: 65p | About 2.0 times |
| Household energy that cost £1 in 1991 | 1991 average: £1.00 | September 2026: £4.96 | About 5.0 times |
| The ONS shopping basket, for comparison | 1991 average: £1.00 | September 2026: £2.40 | About 2.4 times |
Multiples are latest divided by start, before rounding. Petrol before 2003 and after comes from two official sources measured in different ways; see the method below.
A typical bill today
About £1,904 a year for electricity and gas in 2025
The government's estimate of an average annual dual-fuel bill in 2025 was about £1,069 for standard electricity (3,400 kWh) plus £834 for gas (11,200 kWh), all payment methods, including VAT. That bill series uses these usage levels only from 2014, so we use the longer ONS price index for the chart. Source: DESNZ Quarterly Energy Prices tables 2.2.1 and 2.3.1, checked 7 November 2026.
How petrol and household energy prices have changed over the last 10 years
Latest: Unleaded petrol, week of 2 November 2026: 172.78p a litre | ONS household energy index, September 2026: 184.6 (2015 = 100).
Bread and milk are not in this table because their ONS series end in January 2025. Petrol compares the week of 2 November 2026 with the nearest earlier weekly price to 2 November in each year. Energy compares September 2026 with September of each earlier year.
| Period | Unleaded petrol (to 2 Nov 2026) | Household energy index (to Sept 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 year | +29% | +7.8% |
| 2 years | +29% | +18% |
| 3 years | +12% | −6.6% |
| 4 years | +4.2% | −1.9% |
| 5 years | +20% | +67% |
| 6 years | +53% | +72% |
| 7 years | +37% | +60% |
| 8 years | +32% | +68% |
| 9 years | +48% | +81% |
| 10 years | +49% | +91% |
These are changes in the quoted pound figure, not returns after costs or tax. Not financial advice.
An illustration, not an inflation meter
These few items show how far the pound goes at the pump, the shop and the meter. They are not the whole picture: petrol depends heavily on world oil prices, the exchange rate and fuel duty; energy bills on wholesale gas prices, network costs and the price cap; bread and milk on farm and processing costs. A single item can move very differently from the ONS shopping basket.
Prices can fall as well as rise. Choosing another start date changes the comparison. These items are not a substitute for the ONS CPI basket, which is the direct measure of consumer price inflation.
Not financial advice.
What is in the price
Duty and VAT
The petrol prices are pump prices including fuel duty and VAT at 20%; the DESNZ tables publish the duty and VAT rates alongside each week. Household energy prices and the DESNZ bills include VAT, which is charged at the reduced 5% rate for domestic fuel and power. Most everyday food, including bread and milk, is zero-rated for VAT, so no VAT is in those shelf prices.
Sources: DESNZ weekly road fuel prices, HMRC VAT Notice 701/19 on fuel and power and HMRC VAT Notice 701/14 on food, checked 7 November 2026.
Sources and how the figures were made
ONS shopping basket: ONS CPI all-items index D7BT, 60.1 for the 1991 annual average and 144.1 for September 2026. Calculation: 144.1 ÷ 60.1 = 2.3977, rounded to £2.40. This is an illustration of the average basket, not the price of every household's actual shop.
Petrol: ONS RPI average price CZMK, unleaded petrol per litre, annual averages for 1991 to 2002, rounded by ONS to whole pence. From 2003: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero weekly road fuel prices for ultra low sulphur unleaded petrol, averaged across all weeks published in each year; that series starts on 9 June 2003, so the 2003 point covers June to December only. The two sources are collected differently, so treat the 2002 to 2003 join as a change of source, not a measured price move. Latest: week of 2 November 2026, published 3 November 2026.
Bread and milk: ONS RPI average price CZOH (white sliced loaf, 800g) and CZNT (pasteurised milk, per pint), from the ONS consumer price inflation dataset (MM23), release of 21 October 2026. In that file both series end in January 2025, so the latest point is January 2025, not 2026. They are averages across shops and brands, rounded by ONS (the loaf to whole pence), not the price in any one shop.
Household energy: ONS CPI index D7CH, electricity, gas and other fuels (2015 = 100), 37.2 for the 1991 annual average and 184.6 for September 2026. Calculation: 184.6 ÷ 37.2 = 4.9624. We use it because a consistent official typical-bill series does not cover 1991 to 2026: the DESNZ bills at today's fixed usage levels start in 2014, and the Ofgem price cap began only in 2019.
The charts join annual points and the latest observation with straight lines, hiding moves within each year. Download the chart observations (CSV).
The 1-to-10-year table: each cell is (latest / lookback − 1) × 100, with a leading plus or minus sign; changes below 10% in magnitude are shown to one decimal place, larger ones to a whole percentage. Petrol lookbacks use the latest weekly price on or before 2 November in each earlier year, and the download lists the actual dates. Download the table lookbacks and calculations (CSV).