A woman has been left shocked after comparing her weekly food shop from four years ago to today, finding the cost has rocketed by almost 50%. Charlotte Jeffery, 35, from Suffolk, found an old roundup of her weekly shop from 2022 and decided to buy the exact same items again to see how prices compare.
The student supervisor revealed that her list of items had collectively jumped by 44.3%. “The cost of food is becoming ridiculous,” said Charlotte. “People are saying they’re putting their food shop on their credit card just to make ends meet.”
From £10.96 to £15.82
Back in 2022, Charlotte challenged herself to live on £10 a week, filling a trolley for a tenner and some change. The clip was never posted at the time, but after building a following on platforms like TikTok, she decided to use the footage for a new comparison series.
The old clip showed the Tesco shop coming to £10.96, while today’s shop cost £15.82. “I found an old video filmed in 2022 but never distributed, where I challenged myself to live off of a tenner for the week,” she said.
“I had known about the old videos for ages and just wondered about the price points four years on, as the cost of fuel has risen so much. I wanted to know if there had been any dramatic effect. The inflation on these items was 44.3% for the total shop.”
Viral reaction and global comparisons
The video quickly went viral, racking up more than 1.7 million views on TikTok. Since then, Charlotte has been flooded with messages from people across the UK and around the world sharing high food shop costs.
She said: “The video has had an insane reaction with people from Canada, the USA, France, Spain, Croatia, the Netherlands, Australia and NZ all ‘buying’ the same items and seeing how much it would cost them.
“It’s been humbling to see how many countries are struggling with the cost of food and cost of living. Oh, and according to my (basic) estimations, our wages have not matched the 44% food increase in that time.
“I would love something to be done about raising the personal allowance as it’s not been touched since 2022.”
Price rises on the shopping list
The Tesco shopping list included broccoli rising from 49p to 90p, baby spinach from 93p to £1.30, kale from 39p to 80p, easy peelers from 69p to £1.50, sprouts from 79p to 89p, fresh greens from 55p to 90p, and red onions from 67p to 95p.
Bananas went from 78p per kg to 90p per kg, smoked back bacon from £1.25 to £1.49, a 15-pack of eggs from £1.18 to £2.85, breaded chicken steaks from £1.75 to £1.79, sweet potatoes from 89p to £1.19, and a six-pack of free-range eggs from £1.50 to £2.45.
