Welcome to the Money blog, Sky News’ consumer and personal finance hub. Today, our regular weekend feature focuses on the Freddo chocolate bar – which the internet is often obsessed with. Does it really cost too much these days? And why its creator’s daughter will no longer buy one.
Saturday 9 August 2025 07:43, UK
Changing in cost but seemingly not in popularity, the Freddo chocolate bar has become a health check for the UK economy.
When he created the sweet treat almost a century ago in Australia, British teenager Harry Melbourne couldn’t have foreseen he was also crafting a barometer for the cost of living.
But that’s the function of the once-10p chocolate frog in some corners of the internet, where memes track how its price has risen – up to as high as £1 this year – and how fans feel about it.
Harry’s own daughter shares their fury. In childhood, she would wait for her father to come home with boxes of Freddos, but she now has vowed never to buy one again.
“Dad was disgusted with how small it is now and how much they charge for it,” Leonie Wadin, 74, told Money from her home in Melbourne.
“He’d roll over in his grave if he could see it now; he’d be disgusted. It was a penny chocolate. 
“Since Dad died, I haven’t bought a Freddo.”
The origin story
As much as the modern Freddo would upset her father, Leonie said he “never knew” its appeal had reached his native UK and would have been “so proud”.
Harry was only 14, she said, when he cooked up the bar at the confectionery company MacPherson Robertson in 1930, having changed the mind of a boss who wanted a chocolate mouse.
“He said children are scared of mice, so why not a frog? Because kids go down to the lake and catch tadpoles,” Leonie said.
By the time Harry was 15, Freddo – named after his “best mate” Fred – was on the shelves in Australia, selling for a penny.
It doesn’t sell for a penny any more, but does the maths support people being so annoyed? 
The numbers
There are different ways of looking at it: the price of a Freddo, how many you can buy relative to how much you’re earning and the rate of inflation.
Let’s start with the first two.
In 1999, the Freddo cost 10p at a time when the newly introduced national minimum wage was £3.60 for workers aged 22 and over.
That meant your hourly pay could get you 36 bars (ignoring tax and national insurance).
Today, a Freddo typically costs at least 30p (though some retailers sell it for 35p), and the minimum wage is £12.21 (as of April this year), giving you 40 bars.
This argument undermines the memes – as does any argument about shrinkflation, because Freddo’s size has stayed fairly consistent in the UK, weighing in at 18g. The British consumer doesn’t appear to be getting short-changed (though in Australia, it’s a lighter bar at 12g, which may explain Leonie’s particular ire).
Inflation and how much a Freddo should cost now
To further understand Leonie’s grievance (as well as everyone else’s), you might look at inflation, which measures how fast the cost of goods and services is rising.
At its UK relaunch in 1994, a Freddo cost 10p, and it stayed that way until 2007.
If its price had increased in line with inflation, today a bar would go for about 21p, not 30p or 35p, according to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator.
But measures of inflation, specifically the consumer price index (CPI), look at the average price rise of goods and services bought by households, not changes for each individual product.
Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, says two key Freddo ingredients explain its specific price rise since the turn of the century.
“Both cocoa and sugar prices have shot up, with the former up more than 750% between then and now, and raw sugar prices up almost 250%,” she said.
“So finding that the price of a Freddo has jumped 200% in the intervening period shouldn’t surprise anyone.”
Wages have increased, she added, “but of course it would cost you more to get to the shop in the first place, as fuel and travel prices have also risen”.
All of which suggests that the internet’s anger may not be justified. But there’s another way of looking at it…
Emotion, rather than maths
Memes aren’t reflective of maths so much as sentiment – the way people feel.
Spending £1 now gets you three Freddo bars, at best. In 1999, that got you 10 – and this is evocative. 
As Hewson, from AJ Bell, put it: “That childish glee of popping into a shop with £1 and coming out with 10 wrapped bars was tangible.
“Knowing that today we’d only emerge with three or fewer chocolate treats feels unfair.”
This may explain why the bar is perceived as too expensive now.
Freddo gets political
The Bank of England’s governor is mandated to keep inflation at around 2% each year.
If the Bank misses this target by 1% – meaning if inflation falls below 1% or above 3% – the governor has to send a letter to the chancellor explaining why.
While that doesn’t mean the governor is about to make any apology for the price of a Freddo, one MP recently tried to force the issue directly.
Labour’s Patrick Hurley, who represents Southport, said last October he would launch a petition to bring the price down to 5p and send it straight to Cadbury.
He got the idea after he was questioned by children at a secondary school, though he told the BBC it was a “whimsical, light-hearted thing we can do” to engage the youth in politics.
“If you start talking about gas bills,” he said, “the average 14-year-old might switch off, but if you talk about the price of chocolate bars…”
Money reached out to Hurley, but he didn’t get back to us. The petition doesn’t appear on his website now.
‘Freddo is never gonna die’
For Leonie, the sentiment goes deeper than the price – she feels Cadbury has made all that money from her father’s idea.
But the sweets giant did keep in touch with Harry, even up to his 90th birthday, four years before he died, when it sent a Freddo cake and a small Freddo statue.
Leonie has five children, 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. They all know Harry’s story.
And for all her gripes over the chocolate’s soaring cost, she doesn’t want them to miss out on the excitement she felt when her dad brought boxes home from work.
“They’re very proud of their great-granddad, they still buy them, they love them,” Leonie said of the youngest in her family.
And that’s the legacy she wants her family to cherish after her.
“Carry on through every heritage, that’s what I want,” she said.
“The Freddo has to be passed on, Freddo is never going to die. 
“It will always be there… I just want it all passed down, so that the frog is always in our lives.”
And if you’re wondering what Cadbury has to say…
We got in touch with Mondelez International, which owns Cadbury, and this is what the multinational firm said:
“Freddo has endured popularity across generations since originally launching in the UK back in 1973, and continues to be a key part of Cadbury’s range today.
“Whilst it’s important to stress that as a manufacturer we do not set the retail prices for products sold in shops, our manufacturing and supply chain costs have increased significantly over the past 50 years, and Freddo has become more expensive to make.
“We have absorbed these increased costs wherever possible, however on occasion we have made changes to our list prices or multipack sizes to ensure that we can continue to provide consumers with the Freddo that they love, without compromising on the great taste and quality they expect.”
The big set-piece event of the week was the Bank of England reducing the base interest rate to 4%, its lowest level since 2023.
We put together a panel of experts to answer Money blog reader questions on what it means for their cash…
If you’re interested in the economics of Thursday’s decision, this analysis from business and economics correspondent Gurpreet Narwan is worth a few minutes of your time…
Good news for state pension?
Within the notes of the Bank of England’s interest rate cut decision was a forecast that inflation would hit 4% in September.
That may be bad news for prices, but it means pensions could rise by at least that 4% figure next spring, as September’s inflation data is one of the triple lock measures. 
Inflation is forecast to fall later in the year and into 2026, meaning any pension hike could outstrip it by a fair whack.
Child benefit deadline
Elsewhere, did you know that child benefit stops automatically after your child turns 16 – but if they are still in education, you can extend it?
HMRC has urged parents to remember to file their extension before this year’s 31 August deadline.
If you forget, you could miss out on £1,354 a year.
On the same subject, Money live reporter Jess Sharp heard back on a Freedom of Information request this week that showed 214,000 eligible parents aren’t claiming the benefit despite some potentially significant retirement perks. Read more… 
Being in a couple helps with car insurance
Being in a relationship could save you almost £100 on your car insurance premium, according to data from MoneySuperMarket that we posted in the blog this week.
A single driver pays an average of £859.04 a year on their car insurance, while those with a partner pay £760.77.
Cheapest petrol stations
Motorists have been told to fill up at the supermarket, where the RAC says fuel is “considerably cheaper” as prices at the pump rise.
Asda came in as the cheapest supermarket for its average fuel prices – read more.
Here are some essential reads from the blog this week…
Tomorrow, check out our long read on what the price of a Freddo tells us about the economy – and whether all the memes are fair – and we’ll be back with live consumer and personal finance news on Monday.
Have a good weekend.
A Welsh island has gone up for sale – but you’ll need £3m or more to stand a chance at owning it. 
Located off the Pembrokeshire coast, Thorne Island is home to a Grade II-listed fort, built in the early 1850s. 
The fort was used as one of the defences during fears about Napoleonic invasion in the early 1800s and was sold for the first time in 1932. 
Since then, it has become a coastal landmark, hosted a hotel, and was more recently turned into a family home. 
It’s on the market with estate agents Strutt and Parker for offers over £3m. 
It’s currently owned by tech entrepreneur Mike Conner, who bought it in 2017 after seeing it in a YouTube video. 
At the time, the fort was waterlogged, windowless and had no water or electricity, but he saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime restoration project. 
Since then, the fort has undergone an “extensive and carefully planned” restoration. 
Conner relied on a helicopter to transport supplies and equipment for the works, which took 350 trips over just two days. 
Now it comes equipped with underfloor heating, a rooftop bar, a games room, an office, and a crane for lifting boats and supplies.
It has three large double bedrooms, each with an en suite bathroom, a fourth double bedroom with sea views and a fifth, which the listing says has “scope to be divided into smaller rooms”. 
If you’re worried about getting there, don’t be – there’s a helipad for your convenience. 
In the surrounding area, you have access to caves, fishing spots, and sandy beaches. 
The island is also completely off-grid, using renewable energy systems to keep it running. 
Do you get a head start on the weekend without telling your boss? Apparently, a third of us do. 
Earlier this week, Virgin Media revealed it saw a broadband usage dip on Friday afternoons – and its survey suggested 32% of people regularly log off work early on a Friday without official permission. 
We asked our readers on YouTube and LinkedIn if they log off earlier than they should – and the results marry up with the Virgin analysis. 
We’ve rounded up some of your comments (and kept them anonymous for obvious reasons).
Some of you worried your pay would be deducted… 
No such luck of finishing early on a Friday. If I did, they would take the hours off me, the same as going to the doctors or a hospital appointment. They’d deduct pay.
Anonymous
No, have to clock in and out.
Anonymous
If I were leaving early, I would say so, and go. If I need to work late, I stay on.
Anonymous
Others were happy to tell us why they sneak off – and how they get away with it… 
I was given a below-inflation pay increase this year, so my motivation to go the extra mile is vastly diminished. And yes, I now sneak an extra few minutes over lunch and towards the end of the work week.
Anonymous
We finish at 3.30 on Friday, but with us having two buildings & half a mile between them, I’ll go up to one at 11am (nobody’s in that one), do what I need to do (takes 30-40mins) lock up and then go to my local. If I get called up, I just say I’m helping one of the delivery drivers with a drop off.
Anonymous
Once the boss has left early, as is the norm, why not? Going by the example shown by them. 
Anonymous
Self employed subbing for the council, so as long as the work’s done on a Friday, we finish. Saturdays are even better. A 9 hour day turns into a 3 hour. Work’s still done though, so it’s not exactly skiving, just getting it done quicker. 
Anonymous
A few of you didn’t want to say what you got up to, which suggests one thing to us… 
Nobody tell’em, Sky News is a grass.
Big_Farmer, via YouTube
I refuse to answer the question on the grounds I might be incriminating myself or anyone else.
Anonymous
Households will be able to get compensation if their smart meter installation is delayed or left in “dumb” mode from next year, the energy watchdog has announced. 
Customers will be eligible for a payout of £40 if they have to wait more than six weeks for their meter to be installed, Ofgem said in its proposals. 
They will get the same amount if a faulty meter or one failing to operate in smart mode is not fixed within 90 days. 
The plans mean that suppliers will need to improve smart meter standards or pay out from early 2026.  
It comes as part of a crackdown on broken smart meters, which has seen the regulator help enforce the repair or replacement of more than 600,000 since July last year.
It is thought that millions of smart meters have been left in so-called “dumb” mode, where they have poor connectivity or stop automatically transmitting readings.
We reported this morning on the latest customer complaints rankings from Ofcom – which on the face of it once again don’t make great reading for Virgin Media O2.
The company appears to be quite front-footed on this, getting in touch with the Money blog yesterday.
We’ll explain what it says it’s doing, but first…
The Ofcom rankings
While there has been improvement, Virgin topped the charts as the most complained about TV provider, with eight complaints per 100,000 customers. 
In the broadband category, it received the second-highest number of complaints at 12 per 100,000 customers. 
And O2 was the most complained about mobile provider with three complaints…
What is Virgin Media O2 saying?
Virgin Media O2 got in touch with the Money blog yesterday to stress that for the last six months, it had been working on transforming the customer experience.
It says its overall complaints are down 42% over the past year, driven by investments in customer-facing areas, a simplification of their systems and upskilling their staff. 
A spokesman said: “Six months after we drew a line in the sand and committed to improving our customer service, this data from the regulator shows real green shoots with overall complaints in the first quarter of 2025 down by 42% year-on-year.”
It says as-yet unpublished figures for Q2 show further improvement.
The company also points out that while it is working to improve, the numbers relate to complaints per 100,000 customers – and therefore overall complaints are small, as are the margins between providers.
Clearly wanting to appear on top of this, Virgin Media O2 chief executive Lutz Schuler published a blog post this week… 
“We’ll never eradicate complaints entirely, but we’re making strong progress and giving customers confidence that when they do need to tell us about an issue, we’ll resolve it as quickly and efficiently as possible,” it said.
“There’s still work to do and we’re not resting on our laurels, but with complaints down significantly and more issues being fixed first time, it’s clear our investment in customer service is paying off.”
But what do you think of their service?  Share your experiences with us in the comments box above or email moneyblog@sky.uk 
People living near new pylons could get £250 off their electricity bill a year for a decade under government plans. 
Homeowners and campaigners have been concerned about the impact of upgrading the country’s energy infrastructure, which includes building electricity pylons and installing new transmission cables.
Under the proposals, households within 500 metres (about a third of a mile) of new or upgraded electricity transmission infrastructure could receive a discount of up to £250 via their electricity bill every year for 10 years, totalling £2,500.
The discounts, which would be assigned to the home and applied to the occupant, could be provided in instalments of £125 every six months.
The Department of Energy Security and Net Zero is launching a consultation on the proposals. 
Every Friday, we take an overview of the mortgage market with industry experts and round up the best rates from Moneyfactscompare.co.uk. 
We begin this week’s Mortgage Guide with a refresh on the big news coming from the Bank of England – the base rate has been cut from 4.25% to 4%. 
Many lenders had already factored a cut of that margin into their fixed-rate deals, so those taking out new mortgages may not feel much benefit in the short term.
But those locked into variable/tracker mortgages have already started to see the effects.
Almost instantly after the Bank’s decision, Nationwide confirmed its standard mortgage rate and tracker options would have rates cut by 0.25% at the start of September. Others will do the same.
A borrower on a £200,000, 25-year repayment mortgage could see their payment fall by around £28 a month, according to David Hollingworth, associate director at L&C Mortgages. 
“Not all deals are guaranteed to mirror base rate movement and lenders can adjust standard variable rates (SVR) as they like,” he said. 
“Even if they do fall, it’s important to review as SVRs remain way higher than the rates on offer for fixed and tracker rates.” 
What about fixed-term deals? 
Hollingworth says the Bank’s rate cut was so widely expected that it allowed lenders the chance to improve their rates already. 
But this means they are unlikely to see fixes fall further because of the cut. 
Several lenders did make reductions before the Bank’s decision. Virgin Money made cuts of up to 0.14%, TSB up to 0.2% and HSBC up to 0.08%. 
The biggest cut – up to 0.6% – came from Kent Reliance, while Yorkshire Building Society also made a notable 0.34% cut.
As a result, the two-year fixed rate edged down to 5%, below the average five-year at 5.01%.
Caitlyn Eastell, spokesperson at Moneyfactscompare.co.uk, said: “Borrowers will be relieved to see that mortgage rates are trending downwards and with falling swap rates, lenders would have been eagerly waiting for this month’s base rate decision. 
“However, rates are still significantly higher compared to 2020, so millions of borrowers may still be in for a shock.
“Inflation remains above the Bank of England’s 2% target and is expected to stay sticky for much of this year. All eyes will be turned towards the ONS as it could impact whether there will be further cuts later this year.”
Here are the lowest fixed rate deals available at the moment…
Moneyfacts also rounds up its best buy deals, which take in more factors than just the rate… 
Ofcom has revealed the most complained-about broadband, mobile and TV providers. Here are the full rankings…
Broadband
TalkTalk got the highest number of complaints in the media regulator’s latest figures.
The company received complaints from around 13 customers in every 100,000 about its services in the first quarter of the year. 
Plusnet was the least complained-about at five per 100,000 customers.
Mobile 
O2 got the most complaints at three per 100,000 customers. 
Tesco Mobile had the least, at one per 100,000 customers. 
The industry has an average of two complaints per 100,000 customers. 
TV
Virgin Media was the most complained-about pay-TV company, getting double the industry average. 
Sky had the fewest, half the number Virgin got. 
What did the companies have to say?
The Money team contacted all the providers. These ones got back to us… 
TalkTalk said: “We’re very disappointed with this latest report and are working hard to improve how we handle customer complaints as well as reducing the need for them in the first place.
“We continue to invest heavily in a range of projects focused on our customers, giving our frontline colleagues better tools to understand problems, and improving the way we communicate with our customers. We believe these efforts will be reflected in future reports.”
Virgin Media O2 said: “Six months after we drew a line in the sand and committed to improving our customer service, this data from the regulator shows real green shoots with overall complaints in the first quarter of 2025 down by 42% year-on-year.
“Our more recent figures paint an even stronger picture, giving us confidence that our strategy of increased investment, simplification, upskilling agents and removing persistent pain points, is making a genuine and tangible difference in improving our customers’ experience with us. We’ll continue to make progress and get this right for good.”
Jon Shaw, consumer operations director at VodafoneThree, said: “We’re really pleased to see Vodafone score so strongly in Ofcom’s latest report, achieving the brand’s best ever rating with a record low of only one complaint per 100,000 customers for mobile, and two per 100,000 for Three. The creation of VodafoneThree is an opportunity to bring together the best of Vodafone and Three. We are committed to becoming #1 for customer experience and we’re well on that journey.” 
Laura Joseph, chief customer officer at Tesco Mobile, said: “We’re proud to be leading the way in Ofcom’s latest report which named Tesco Mobile as the industry’s least complained about mobile network. Our customers continue to be at the heart of everything we do, and we’re always proud to be recognised for our great service and customer satisfaction.
“We always review customer complaints to make sure that we’re constantly improving our service – that’s how we remain the nation’s first choice network for customer service.”
iD Mobile said: “We take customer feedback seriously and are continually working to improve our service. We acknowledge that earlier this year some customers experienced issues that fell short of our usual standards. While we’re disappointed to be ranked as the third most complained-about provider in this Ofcom report, it’s important to note that many of these complaints were linked to a nationwide outage from our network provider, Three, in January, which was outside our direct control.
“That said, we’ve made meaningful year-on-year improvements in both complaint volumes and resolution times. This positive trend has continued since the reporting period (Jan-Mar), with a 30% drop in complaints in the following quarter. We remain committed to investing in our technology and teams to enhance the customer experience, and we’re confident these improvements will be reflected in future reports.”
EE said: “EE remains focused on consistently providing excellent customer service. Each year we invest millions of pounds into new technology and training to enable our guides to offer the best possible customer experience. With more customers than ever joining EE Broadband, we’re laser-focused on ensuring their experience is smooth, hassle-free, and complaint-free.”
Sky, which also owns Now Broadband, did not comment. 
Citroen has been told to improve its “chaotic” and “shameful” recall over a potentially fatal airbag safety fault. 
Consumer champion Which? wants the government to intervene if Stellantis, the car brand’s parent company, does not improve the process for fixing the fault and offering customers compensation.
A “stop-drive” recall was issued in June for all Citroen C3 second-generation and DS 3 first-generation vehicles made between 2009 and 2019 due to the risk of the airbag rupturing in a collision, which can cause injury or death. 
All affected vehicles are expected to be fixed by the end of next month.  
Customers were told to “immediately cease using their vehicle”, but Which? has raised concerns over how this message has been shared. 
It says it has spoken to several distressed drivers, including the mother of a premature baby who needs hospital treatment and a woman caring for her terminally ill husband, who have been left weeks or months without transport and forced to hire cars and taxis. 
A few owners who told Which? they were being offered compensation said they were getting a maximum of compensation of £22.50 a day – far less than the cost of car hire in most regions.
Sue Davies, Which? head of consumer protection policy, said: “From people left stranded with no means of transport, to those paying out a fortune to hire cars and taxis, the emotional and financial burden of this recall has fallen squarely on those least able to absorb it.
“Stellantis must urgently confirm it will pay compensation for alternative transport as well as offer practical solutions such as offering at-home repairs or towing affected cars to garages. If not, many people will see no alternative but to continue driving cars that are potentially very dangerous. 
“The government needs to step in and hold them to account to ensure UK consumers have much greater clarity of what they need to do and what they are entitled to – and are never left in this position again.” 
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, the government body that oversees car safety recalls, told Money it was in contact with Citroen on how it is managing the recall. 
“We have received reassurances the company is working hard to arrange repairs and minimise disruption for vehicle owners. However, we know there is more that can be done and we continue to reinforce their responsibilities under the code of practice,” it said. 
“We urge all owners of affected vehicles to follow Citroen’s advice. To check if your vehicle is affected, car owners can use the checker on Citroen’s website.”
The Department for Transport told Money that Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, and Lilian Greenwood, future of roads minister, were “actively engaging with manufacturers and industry leaders to ensure any disruption is kept to an absolute minimum”. 
It added: “We understand how frustrating these recalls are for those affected. The safety of those drivers and their families remains the transport secretary’s top priority.”
Stellantis said: “The company’s focus remains on completing the replacement of airbags in affected vehicles as swiftly as possible.
“Our Citroen network is fully engaged in maximising the number of cars that can be completed every day and, to increase our repair capacity even further and minimise as much as possible the impact on customers, our Peugeot network is now authorised to replace airbags on these cars in addition to at home options.  
“For each and every customer, we discuss options to support mobility, recognising that every driver has specific requirements.  These options include replacement airbags at a dealership or at home, courtesy car, support for other mobility options and recovery.  We give priority to those with the most urgent needs.” 
If you are unsure if you’ve been affected by the recall, you can contact a Stellantis dealership who will check for you, or visit the official recall site for your specific vehicle brand. 
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