Food shopping is where money pressure shows up first.
Not because people are careless. Not because they don’t budget.
But because it’s one of the few weekly costs you can actually see, touch, and change.
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When money feels tight, the food shop is often where families feel it most.
So instead of talking in percentages or headlines, we looked at food in a different way.
We asked a simpler question:
How many hours of work does it take to pay for a basic weekly food shop now, compared with a few years ago?
We’ve done this for people on minimum wage and for people on average salaries, using official UK figures and the same food shop each time.
What does it look like
This uses official UK figures.
Minimum wage
From the UK government’s published rates:
2019 (age 25+): £8.21 an hour
2025 (age 21+): £12.21 an hour
Food prices
From the Office for National Statistics (ONS):
Food prices are now roughly 35–40% higher than in 2019
This comes from the ONS food and non-alcoholic drinks inflation data, which tracks how food prices change across the UK.
The assumptions
This example uses a standardised weekly food shop, not a specific household.
A basic basket of everyday essentials
No alcohol, takeaways, or premium items
The same basket used in both years
Prices adjusted using official ONS food inflation
Rounded numbers for clarity
A single adult might cover most of their week with this shop. A couple or family would usually spend more.
The aim isn’t to model every household.
The aim is to compare food costs and minimum wage fairly over time.
Step one: the cost of a weekly shop
To keep this realistic but simple:
2019 weekly shop: £60
Food prices up by about 37% since then
That puts the 2025 weekly shop at roughly £82 (£60 × 1.37 = £82.20, rounded).
These are ONS stats, but many families tell us their real weekly spend is much higher.
Step two: how many hours of work that takes
Now we divide the shop cost by the minimum wage in each year.
2019
£60 ÷ £8.21
About 7.3 hours of work
2025
£82 ÷ £12.21
About 6.7 hours of work
The results side by side
YearNational Minimum WageWeekly food shopHours of work needed2019£8.21£607.3 hours2025£12.21£826.7 hours
On paper, someone on minimum wage needs slightly fewer hours to cover a basic food shop than they did in 2019.
What about people on higher than minimum wage?
This is where a lot of households fall through the cracks.
Not everyone earns minimum wage. Many people earn more than that, but don’t see their pay rise every year.
Over time, minimum wage has increased faster than many workplace pay rises. That means some people now earn only a little more than minimum wage, even if they didn’t used to.
When that happens, food, rent and energy still go up, but pay stays put.
This group often gets hit from both sides. They don’t qualify for much support, but they also don’t have the pay increases needed to absorb higher living costs.
That’s why people on “decent” wages can still feel stretched, frustrated, and confused about where their money is going.
It’s not that they’re suddenly worse with money. It’s that the gap between pay and everyday costs has quietly closed.
What the numbers show for average salary earners
When you run the same comparison using average full-time pay, the picture flips.
Using official earnings data:
2019 average hourly pay (full-time): about £15.60
2025 average hourly pay: about £19.70
Now compare that to the same basic weekly food shop:
2019 food shop: £60
2025 food shop: £82
How many hours of work that takes
2019 (average pay)
£60 ÷ £15.60 = about 3.8 hours
2025 (average pay)
£82 ÷ £19.70 = about 4.2 hours
What that tells us
Someone on minimum wage now needs slightly fewer hours to cover a basic food shop than they did in 2019.
Someone on an average salary needs more hours than they did before.
Why this matters
Many people on “average” wages:
don’t always get yearly pay rises
haven’t kept pace with minimum wage increases
don’t qualify for much support
So while they earn more on paper, food is taking a bigger slice of their working hours than it used to.
That’s how you can be earning a “decent” wage and still feel worse off.
Not because you’re failing.
Because the maths has quietly turned against you.
How this scales for families
If a household spends twice as much on food, the hours of work needed roughly double too.
So why does food feel harder to afford?
Food is only one bill.
This comparison does not include:
rent or mortgage
energy bills
council tax
travel costs
childcare
phones or internet
Many of those costs have risen faster than food, and faster than wages.
So even if the food shop alone takes a similar amount of working time, there is less money left by the time you get to it.
That’s why food often feels like the breaking point.
What this actually means for households
Food is usually the first place people try to cut back. You can see it, change brands, and drop treats.
But the numbers show something important:
Cutting back on food can’t fix a budget that’s being squeezed by bigger bills elsewhere.
If you feel like you’re budgeting harder but still getting nowhere, this helps explain why. It isn’t a lack of effort. It’s pressure from costs that are largely outside your control.
The takeaway
Food isn’t the only thing breaking most budgets. It’s everything else around it.
Even if pay rises roughly keep up with food prices, higher rent, energy and childcare costs leave families with less room to breathe.
If you’re cutting back on food and still struggling, the problem isn’t you.
What to do next if food is the only place left to cut
If food is where the pressure is showing up, it’s often a sign that something bigger needs attention.
These steps are usually more helpful than trimming the food shop further:
Using support isn’t failure. It’s a practical response to costs that are outside your control.
A final reality check
We’re not telling anyone to shop harder, skip meals, or try harder.
We’re just trying to show, with simple maths, why many households feel stretched even when they’re doing everything right.
When money is tight, clarity matters.
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Naomi knows the burden of living on very little and became debt free by following her own money saving tips and tricks. She is an expert on saving money at the supermarket and side hustles.
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