Here’s how many Freddos an hourly wage can buy today compared with 2000 – and it’s not good

Ah, Freddos. Those beloved mini chocolate snacks that’ll always satisfy your sweet tooth for a bargain price. Right?

Wrong.

Well, that’s according to some serious number-crunching by Robert Peston, anyway.

The Cadbury’s treat has often been referenced in rows about confectionary price inflation, but now the ITV political journalist has confirmed what we all feared – that Freddos just aren’t very good value for money anymore.

Appearing on Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back, Peston explained how the price of the product had changed over the years, beginning the segment with a pretty startling figure.

“The basic numbers are these – a Freddo bar cost 10p in 2000. It went up to 17p, that’s a 70 percent increase, in 2010,” he said.

“Believe it or not, for a brief period it was 30p, but now it’s 25p.”

So it’s safe to say the price has gone up a fair amount. But there’s more...

Peston then looked at how many Freddos you could buy in 2000, based on average earnings, compared to how many we can buy today, judged on the same metric.

“The average hourly rate of pay in 2000 was £7.50. That bought you 75 Freddos. Of course, pay has gone up really quite a lot since 2000. It’s gone up to £14.20 an hour on average.

“But here’s the really bad news. That average hour’s work buys you only 57 Freddos – disaster!”

Giving his expert opinion, he then added: “If you want to make a decent investment, don’t eat a Freddo - just put it away for a rainy day! It’s going up in value.”

So, there you are.

Every day’s a school day.

Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back is on Thursdays at 8pm on C4 and All 4.