​Supermarket inflation since 1988

This Yahoo Finance story shows the historical extent of inflation in our supermarkets since 1988. A pensioner in England found an old Sainsbury’s shopping receipt from 1988 that shows all but one item, cat food, has increased in price over the last 26 years. The total bill of £17.16 would today cost more than twice as much at £42.67, a 148.6% increase.

Interestingly, the article points out that the basic state pension has almost tripled since 1988, from 39.50 to 113.10, a 186.32% increase; meaning that your shopping today would consume a significantly smaller proportion of your available money…if you shop at Sainsbury, that is!

Here is a handy inflation calculator from the This Is Money website which uses RPI data to let you to see how the value of money has changed over time.