Money blog: Price of popular Cadbury chocolate bar rises - creator says it's a 'last resort' (2024)

Drivers are being taken for an "expensive ride" when filling up at the pump and the government needs to take action - that's the message from the AA today.

It comes after the industry watchdog found consumers were still being ripped off by fuel prices, with competition between retailers "failing" to reduce costs.

In an update on its monitoring of the fuel market, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the cost to all motorists was more than £1.6bn in 2023 alone.

While supermarket chains used to use petrol and diesel as a means of attracting shoppers, that changed after the COVID pandemic when retailers invested in the cost of household essentials instead as the cost of living crisis gathered pace.

Independent fuel retailers have long denied suggestions that prices are too high, insisting critics are taking no account of their own additional costs for things such as wages and electricity.

AA's president Edmund King said his organisation had flagged the growing lack of competition among supermarkets years ago, and called on the government to set up a mandatory "pump watch" scheme so drivers can see the outlets ripping them off.

"Drivers have been taken for a very expensive ride, which is even more worrying during a cost of living crisis," he said.

"As a nation we are dependent on road transport, so uncompetitive fuel prices fuel inflation and lead to those on lower incomes cutting back on other household expenditure."

The AA has reported that average pump prices currently stand at 145.1p a litre for petrol and 150.3p a litre for diesel.

Summer is here and while you enjoy the sun why not also take advantage of the deals, discounts and freebies that are currently on offer.

Here, we take a look at some of the offers out there:

Morrisons

You can get a free bowl of cereal every day of the week if you visit a Morrisons cafe.

No minimum spend is required but the offer is limited to one bowl of cereal per customer, per day.

All you need to do to claim the deal is ask for a "Kellogg's breakfast" at the till.

The offer ends on 4 August.

Tesco

Children can eat for free at a Tesco cafe when an adult makes a purchase and scans their Clubcard.

The offer is available until 30 August in England and Wales and until 16 August in Scotland.

There is no fixed minimum spend required.

Across 50 of its stores, it is also offering customers free vegetables when they purchase a product from children's food brand Ella's Kitchen until 25 August.

If you buy an Ella's Kitchen product online before 3 September, you can add a selected vegetable t your basket for just a penny.

Bella Italia

If you sign up to Bella Italia's newsletter and buy a main meal, you can get a free main meal on your next visit.

There is no end date for the offer at the moment.

You can sign up to the newsletter here.

IKEA

The Swedish store is offering 50% off selected restaurant meals every Friday for those who are members of its family loyalty scheme.

The offer is available each week until 30 August.

You can sign up for the scheme here.

Leon

If you sign up to the Leon Club on the restaurant chain's app, you can redeem a 30% discount code, which you can use onyour next app order for most Leon restaurants.

The code, which is limited to one customer, is valid for 30 days and you just need to enter it at the checkout.

The offer cannot be used with any meal deals or at tills.

McDonald's

Every Monday morning, McDonald's offers discounts on its app, which can be redeemed up until 11.59pm the same day.

The deals are only available when you order through the app to pick up in-store.

Some of the recent discounts have included six chicken nuggets priced at £1.39 and a single McMuffin for £1.19.

The price of a bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk bar is up by as much as 12% since last month, according to a pricing tracker.

A 110g bar now costs 12.1% more in Sainsbury's - going from £1.65 to £1.85.

Increases were also seen in Asda (10% from £1.50 to £1.65) and Waitrose (5.7% from £1.75 to £1.85), the Grocer's tracker found.

In Morrisons and Tesco, the price remained the same at £1.65 and £1.49 respectively.

Mondelez International, which owns Cadbury, told the Money team it was "continuing to experience significantly higher input costs" across its supply chain.

It named cocoa and sugar as two ingredients that are "costing far more than they have done previously".

Costs associated with energy, packaging and transport have also remained high, it said.

"This means that our products continue to be much more expensive to make and while we have absorbed these costs where possible, we still face considerable challenges," a spokesperson said.

"We understand the economic pressures that consumers continue to face and raising prices is a last resort for our business."

The hikes come following a smaller-than-usual cocoa crop in West Africa.

Over the last year, cocoa prices have more than doubled due to disastrous harvests in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, which traditionally produce 60% of the word's supply.

Earlier this month, Mars confirmed it had shrunk tubs of Celebrations, with a 660g box cut to 550g, to deal with rising costs.

The Money team has contacted Sainsbury's, Asda and Waitrose for comment.

Now has been named the most complained about broadband and landline provider.

The service received 22 complaints per 100,000 subscribers between January and March - well above the industry average of 11.

The industry regulator, Ofcom, also found Now had 12 complaints per 100,000 customers for its landline service.

This was followed by EE and Virgin Media - both on 11 per 100,000.

A Now spokesperson said: "We're absolutely committed to ensuring our customers have the best broadband experience - although this represents a small proportion of our customers, we're still disappointed by this number.

"We're making improvements to ensure that our customers are fully supported throughout their journey with us."

As with broadband, Now's and Virgin's complaints were mainly driven by how they handled complaints, while EE's complaints were mainly about faults, service and getting services connected.

Utility Warehouse generated the fewest complaints for landline services, while Sky and Shell Energy had the fewest complaints among broadband providers.

Ofcom said overall complaints fell compared to the previous quarter.

While it's positive that the overall number of broadband complaints has fallen, Ofcom's figures show there is still plenty of room for improvement in the sector.

"It's notable that a major issue for customers is how providers deal with their complaints. This drives many of the complaints we receive, so is clearly an area where providers must raise their game," Ofcom's policy director Fergal Farragher said.

A Virgin Media O2 spokesperson said: "We know we don't always get it right when it comes to customer service and we have a comprehensive strategy in place to improve."

They said there were now more agents, including in specialist teams that handle the most complex issues, and more money was being invested in customer-facing areas of the business.

ByJames Sillars, business reporter

It's been a topsy-turvy week for global stock markets.

Tech shares have suffered, particularly in the US, amid frustrations that AI spending is not yet being reflected in profits.

Earnings have generally disappointed. Until today.

The FTSE 100 has opened 0.5% higher at 8,224.

NatWest stock is leading the way - up by more than 7%.

The taxpayer-backed lender not only confirmed a £2.5bn deal to buy a big mortgage portfolio from struggling Metro Bank.

Its latest financial results were also a cause for some cheer, analysts said, because profits came in better than expected in the second quarter despite strong competition in the mortgage market.

Also powering ahead was Drax - the electricity generator.

Its shares were more than 15% higher on the back of higher first-half profits.

The company credited strong renewable power output and said it expected annual earnings to be at the top end of market expectations.

By Emily Mee, Money team

Even if you aren't familiar with the name, you've definitely seen them.

Stock images are used by media organisations to illustrate their stories - we use them all the time in this blog. Like this woman, who may have just smashed a job interview, or secured a new broadband deal, or clocked off after her employer introduced a four-day week...

Marketing agencies, estate agencies and other industries use them too.

We recently spoke to people who'vehired out their houses for filming- so can you hire out yourself in a similar way?

Suzi Payton has appeared in stock images, as well as an ad campaign for Public Health England, and in all they've netted her about £2,150.

The first shoot, for Getty Images and Flashpop, involved heading to a gym in London with "a group of about 20 women all on the larger side".

All the women were told to turn up in workout clothes, and were led by an instructor to take part in aerobics, basketball and yoga.

"It was a day long shoot - it was very tiring, I must say," says Suzi.

"They gave us sandwiches from Pret and a coffee - there weren't really any facilities for teas and coffees."

The ADHD and neurodiversity coach says she spotted the opportunity through a casting site called StarNow, which was looking for "real people".

It's often as simple as sending through a current picture of yourself, she says.

The site also helped her get a part in a couple of Public Health England ad campaigns - which paid much more than the stock image shoot.

Suzi says she was paid about £150 for the stock shoot, and about £2,000 for the ad campaigns.

As for whether she's seen her pictures around, she says she spotted one in an Asda magazine but hasn't seem them elsewhere.

So are there lots of opportunities out there?

Stock photographer Viktor Wallon-Hars, who runs the websiteWahaviBlog, says photographers commonly make dozens to hundreds of dollars a month through selling stock images.

The industry is "not what it was 20 years ago", he says, so it's not financially viable for most stock photographers to pay models.

Instead, he says many photographers will use family members to model - or they will take photos of public spaces, which do not require subjects to sign model releases (more on this in a minute) or be paid.

On the occasions when people are asked to model for stock images, Mr Wallon-Hars says you should consider that your face may appear "in newspapers, calendars, websites or on a book cover".

What else should you know before appearing in a stock image?

If you've agreed to appear in a stock image, you'll be asked to sign a model release.

This is a legal document the person in the photograph is required to sign to give the photographer permission to use or sell the image.

You won't get any money if the photograph is sold on - the photographer is the copyright owner so they will be entitled to money from the image sale.

When you're asked to sign a model release, you should read through it carefully as they can vary.

Some will cover sensitive issues - such as references to mental or physical health, drug use or sexual matters - while others won't.

If you've agreed for your image to be used for sensitive issues, there isn't much you can do when it is used in this way.

However, there is something called "defamatory use" which you are able to seek legal advice over.

Defamatory use covers when an image is used:

• Alongside a statement that is false, offensive, harmful or that has been made without adequate research
• Alongside information that creates a false impression of a person in the image
• In a way that damages the reputation of the people in the image.

It can be hard to balance the demands of eating well without spending a lot. In this series, we examine everyday supermarket products to help you make informed decisions.

Sunna Van Kampen, founder of Tonic Health, who went viral on social media for reviewing food in the search of healthier choices, and dieticianNichola Ludlam Raine fromnicsnutrition.comoffer their expertise - and in this final part of the series, they're looking at eggs.

"The humble egg is one of the most nutritious, affordable and versatile foods you can find in the supermarket," Sunna says.

Here's why...

'Nature's multivitamin'

Eggs are essentially "nature's multivitamin", Sunna says.

"Each egg contains about 6g of high-quality protein, which is vital for muscle repair, immune function, and overall health."

Eat three in a day and you're adding 18g of protein. It's also what's called "a complete protein" - one with all nine essential amino acids (histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, valine).

They contain 19 nutrients:

1. Vitamin A: 270 IU
2. Vitamin D: 41 IU
3. Vitamin E: 0.5mg
4. Vitamin K: 0.1mcg
5. Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): 0.25mg
6. Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic acid):0.7 mg
7. Vitamin B6: 0.1mg
8. Vitamin B9 (Folate): 24mcg
9. Vitamin B12: 0.6mcg
10. Calcium: 28mg
11. Iron: 0.8mg
12. Magnesium: 6mg
13. Phosphorus: 99mg
14. Potassium: 69mg
15. Sodium: 70mg
16. Zinc: 0.6mg
17. Selenium: 15.4mcg
18. Copper: 0.025mg
19. Manganese: 0.02mg

"These nutrients support everything from vision and bone health to brain function and metabolism and are great to add into your diet every day," Sunna says.

Antioxidants and more

"The yolk also contains powerful antioxidants like Lutein and Zeaxanthin, which are crucial for eye health but one of the most important is Choline - which a single egg will provide c 147 mg," he says.

"Four eggs a day and you'll be able to reach 100% of your required choline intake - which is essential for the brain, nervous system, liver and cell function."

Can you eat them every day?

"For years, eggs got a bad rap due to their cholesterol content," Sunna says.

"But thanks to advancements in nutritional science, we now know that the cholesterol in eggs doesn't significantly impact blood cholesterol levels formost people.

"In fact,studieshave shown that eating eggs can improve your HDL (good) cholesterol while maintaining the healthy HDL to LDL cholesterol ratio.

"So, if you've been avoiding eggs for this reason, it's time to bring them back to your breakfast table."

Nichola says...

"There is no recommended limit on the number of eggs you should consume weekly.

"However, incorporating variety is key to a balanced diet (in clinic I often suggest patients have up to 2 eggs daily for this reason). Enjoy eggs in different forms - whether poached, boiled, or as an omelette - to keep your meals diverse and interesting."

Eggs vs other superfoods/alternatives

Let's compare eggs to other popular superfoods and "health food" options.

An egg on average costs between 26-31p (for free-range).

Each medium egg roughly weighs 55g - which means we're looking at £4.77/kg (although some of that weight is the inedible shell).

• Blueberries- typically £12/kg
• Green powders - around £30/kg
• Protein bars:up to £45/kg

"With the added nutrient profile you get from protein and amino acids to vitamins and Choline, they are in my opinion one of the best superfoods in the supermarket," Sunna says.

"It's also worth noting that the quality of the chicken's life and the food they eat impacts the nutritional content of eggs, so the investment in free range or organic does actually lead to a more nutritious egg.

"They are accessible to everyone and can be easily incorporated into any meal of the day."

Nichola's view - and a vegan alternative...

Nichola agrees: "Eggs are indeed a powerhouse of nutrition, providing an excellent source of high-quality protein, essential for muscle repair and overall body function.

"Rich in vitamins and minerals such as vitamin B12, vitamin D, and selenium, eggs also contain beneficial antioxidants like lutein and zeaxanthin, which support eye health.

"Nevertheless, it's important to recognise that some individuals, including many children, are allergic to eggs, and others may avoid them due to vegan dietary choices.

"For these cases, tofu serves as an excellent protein-packed alternative in savoury dishes.

"Additionally, chia seed eggs can be used in baking as a vegan substitute."

To make a chia seed egg, mix one tablespoon of chia seeds with three tablespoons of water and let it sit for about 15 minutes until it forms a gel-like consistency - this mixture can replace one egg in various recipes.

That was the last part of this series - in which we covered everything from bread and biscuits to sweets and cereals.

Catch up on any you've missed below...

Every Friday we take an overview of the mortgage market, speaking to those in the industry before getting a round-up of the best rates courtesy of the independent experts atMoneyfactscompare.co.uk.

Mortgage rates made the headlines again this week as the price cut war continues.

A key benchmark was breached on Wednesday when Nationwide launched a five-year fixed rate at less than 4% (3.99%) for those buying a new home.

The deal is only available to people with at least a 40% deposit and want to borrow more than £300,000.

David Hollingworth from L&C Mortgage said: "It's been months since we've seen a five-year rate below 4% when they petered out as fixed rate began to edge up in February.

"Rates took a turn as market expectation of how hard the Bank of England may cut the base rate this year began to ease back in the face of stubborn inflation."

He explained that lenders have focused their best rates on the purchase market and remortgage customers will often find that corresponding deals will carry higher rates (Nationwide’s corresponding deal for remortgage is 4.27%, all other detail the same).

"It's always important for borrowers to look beyond the headline rate to consider what represents best overall value for them. Paying a bigger fee will be right for some as a lower rate could outweigh the bigger fee," he said.

"However, those with a smaller mortgage will often be better to look more closely at low or no fee deals, despite carrying a slightly higher interest rate."

He said Nationwide's move has been positive, and it may help drag others into introducing lower prices, but he doesn't expect to see a "headlong rush" to launch sub-4% deals.

This week has also seen Skipton launch some new deals for first time buyers with the possibility of a £1,500 cashback.

Available to first-time buyers borrowing more than £125,000 and up to 95% of the purchase price, the new deals include a five-year fixed rate at 5.89% with no fee.

"This isn't the lowest 95% rate on the market but it's positive to see lenders looking to develop new options for first-time buyers and recognising that cash-strapped buyers could benefit from help with costs," David added.

We asked Moneyfacts to hone in on first-time buyer deals this week.

Finance expert Rachel Springall said: "First-time buyers waiting for the Bank of England to cut base rate may be crossing their fingers for August, but this has split opinions among economists, who are now pointing towards September at the earliest due to stubborn service inflation.

"Prospective buyers sitting on the fence may remain patient for a little while longer.

"However, on the flip side, those who feel this might now be their chance could see if they can lock into a deal early, as some lenders will let borrowers do this from three to six months in advance."

Moneyfacts also looks at what it calls "best buys" - which considers not just the rate, but other costs and incentives. These are their top picks this week...

As many as 320,000 people have been pushed into poverty due to soaring mortgage rates, a thinktank has found.

In 2022/23, the average mortgage rate was around 2.3%, translating to interest payments of £240 per month for a household with a typical outstanding mortgage, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said.

But, by the end of last year, a tenth of households faced a mortgage interest rate of at least 4.7% - the equivalent of £490 per month.

According to Moneyfacts, the average 5-year fixed residential mortgage rate is now 5.39%, while a typical 2-year rate is 5.79%.

"Increases in interest rates between December 2021 and December 2023 are likely to have pushed mortgagor poverty rates up by... 320,000 more people, when measured accounting for variation in mortgage interest rates," the IFS report said.

"But official poverty statistics, which apply a single average interest rate to all households, will only capture 230,000 of this."

Mortgage rate rises have also pushed some adults into financial hardship.

Borrowers remortgaging in 2022 were more likely to fall into arrears on bills than those with mortgages who had not remortgaged, the report found.

Once all households have remortgaged, the number of adults behind on bills could rise by 370,000, it added.

Sam Ray-Chaudhuri, a research economist at IFS and an author of the report, said poverty rises had been understated due to the unequal impact of inflation.

"At a time when rates of deprivation and food insecurity have risen substantially, poverty statistics that hide the real scale of these increases risk policymakers missing what is truly happening to poverty," he said.

A family has scooped a £1m win on the National Lottery after playing the same numbers for 30 years.

The Cobbs first formed their syndicate during the Christmas of 1994 and have been waiting for their lucky moment ever since.

Audrey Cobb, 87, and her three children, David Cobb, Carol Nobbs and Sandra Digby from Peterborough will each bank £250,000 - and they've already made plans for the money.

It was syndicate leader David's wife Linda who discovered the group had matched five numbers and the Bonus Ball for Saturday's draw.

She checked the National Lottery app the morning after the draw and saw a message alerting them to the win.

"She saw a message which said we'd won £1 million and calmly said to me, 'David, I think you'd better have a look at this'," David said.

"To be honest I was a bit grumpy and couldn't be bothered to find my glasses but when your wife of 45 years uses 'that' voice and says, 'no, you really need to read this', you know you'd better find your glasses!"

"It was an incredible moment, especially for my sister Carol who, after a tough few years, thought she would never have her own home again," the 67-year-old said.

As the National Lottery phone lines did not open until later in the day, they set off on a 10-mile bike ride to fill the time before claiming the win.

After the win was confirmed, David said he visited his mother to tell her the good news.

"We called Carol and Sandra on a group call - Sandra was at the allotment and was so shocked by the news a fellow gardener had to pop over to make sure she didn't faint, while Carol just burst into tears knowing that her housing woes were a thing of the past," he said.

While Carol has already found her new home, Sandra plans to treat herself to a new car.

Both David and his mother are still undecided on what to buy but making sure the family benefits is their priority.