Inflation: is your money keeping up?
Inflation changes what money buys. This UK video explains CPI and CPIH, nominal and real pay, savings returns, and why rent, petrol, childcare, food and energy affect households differently.
Worked examples are illustrative. Reported figures retain their observation periods and release dates, checked 5 October 2026. This video is educational, not financial advice.
Educational documentary. Not financial or investment advice.
In these topics
Chapters
- £100 becomes £103
- The rate and the price level
- How CPI builds its basket
- Why the UK has several measures
- What a pay rise tells you
- When pay buys more or less
- Savings and investments in real terms
- Four households, different baskets
- What household cost indices add
- Reading a 2026 headline
- Is your money keeping up?
Sources and credits
Photo credits (Wikimedia Commons)
- Hedgehogs Day Nursery exterior, Chatham, Kent, UK — photographed 5 June 2025: Sunolafjagtenben-hur, CC0 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHedgehogs_Day_Nursery_Chatham_%281A_Hill%27s_Terrace%2C_Chatham_ME4_6PX%29.png
- Petrol forecourt on London Road, Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey, UK — photographed 25 April 2025: DanielMichaelPerry, CC0 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AShell_petrol_station_Staines.jpg
- UK supermarket self-checkout, Aldi in England — photographed 24 July 2026; still photograph of checkout/scanner equipment: UrbaniteMunicipalist, CC0 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AEngland_Aldi_self-checkout.jpg
Primary sources
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/uksectoraccounts/articles/quarterlyeconomiccommentary/apriltojune2026.
- https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/explainers/what-is-inflation.
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/ukconsumerpriceinflationbasketofgoodsandservices/2026.
- https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2017/11/24/the-inflation-story-history-of-prices-measurement-told-for-the-first-time-in-new-book/.
- https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/letter/2003/chancellor-letter-101203.
- https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2017/03/20/measuring-inflation-whats-changed-and-why/.
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/august2026.
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/averageweeklyearningsingreatbritain/september2026.
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/householdcostsindicesforukhouseholdgroups/apriltojune2026.
- https://consultations.ons.gov.uk/external-affairs/household-cost-indices-user-needs/.
- https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/savings/investing/investing-beginners-guide.
- https://www.gov.uk/apply-tax-free-interest-on-savings.
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHedgehogs_Day_Nursery_Chatham_%281A_Hill%27s_Terrace%2C_Chatham_ME4_6PX%29.png.
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AShell_petrol_station_Staines.jpg.
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AEngland_Aldi_self-checkout.jpg.
Not regulated financial advice.