You couldn’t beat the feeling of running down to your local off licence with coins jingling in your pocket.
Back in the day, you could go into the corner shop with a fiver and come back with plenty of change. But sadly, during the cost of living crisis, this is very rarely the case nowadays.
So when an Instagram page called ‘I’m Just Bait’ posted a price list of popular products from 1995, people felt very nostalgic. The humble Cadbury’s Freddo, often used as a benchmark for inflation online, was one of the items compared to its price in 2024.
It’s worth taking some of the prices with a pinch of salt – as they do differ from place to place. The social media account said: “While the prices in this list are averages and will vary by location, they highlight just how much the cost of living has changed in the UK over the last 30 years.”
According to the Instagram account, the average price of a pint of lager has soared from £1.66 (1995) to £4.70 (2024) over the past 29 years. In the same period, fish and chips costs have risen from £1.68 to a whopping £9.
Meanwhile, our beloved Freddo bars have more than tripled in price from 10p to 35p. Other items including a dozen eggs (63p to £2), Pot Noodle (50p to £1.20), and a pint of milk (36p to 85p) have seen similar hikes.
Fuel costs have got just as pricey in recent years – with a litre of petrol going from 60p to £1.50 over 29 years. And it’s bad luck for smokers, too. The price of a pack of cigarettes has rocketed from £2.59 to an eye-watering £12 according to the research.
But the one that will break your heart the most will probably be house prices – especially if you’re not on the property ladder yourself. Back in 1995, you could purchase a property for the very doable average sum of £53,213. Fast forward to today and you’re looking at forking out a whopping £268,144 on average.
One small counter argument is that most of us are earning more than we did in the ’90s. The average salary has jumped from £12,088 in 1995 to £31,000 today. Nowhere near enough to buy a house, though.
In the comments section, many were left reminiscing about happy memories. One said: “I remember the 60p days. And another wrote: “If I lived in the 90s with this salary I’d be living the life.”
Meanwhile, others grumbled about the cost of living nowadays. One moaned: “Prices have gone up, yet the quality of the actual products has been deteriorating.” And another asked: “Where have you found a Freddo for 35p? I can’t find one anywhere without costing me a gold coin.”