Food, fuel, energy: what's happening to your bills and what to do about it

The horrific war in Ukraine is having a direct impact on the prices we pay, but there are things you can do to reduce the impact.

The ongoing situation in Ukraine is not just a horrific spectacle from a moral standpoint, it’s also having an impact closer to home.

Tied in with the global uncertainty off the back of the last couple of years, there are an awful lot of forces outside the UK that are driving up the costs ordinary people face each and every month on regular household bills. 

Here are some of the big ones, as well as what you can do to mitigate the impacts.

Fuel bills

Anyone who has filled their car up lately will know that fuel is punishingly expensive.

Figures from FairFuelUK show that over the last 12 months, the cost of petrol has jumped from around £1.20 per litre to now almost £1.70 per litre.

Diesel prices have also grown sharply, with both petrol and diesel becoming far more costly off the back of price hikes in the wholesale markets.

However, the ongoing global uncertainty means that these price rises are likely to continue for some time to come. After all, Russia is one of the world’s biggest exporters of oil.

Indeed, FairFuelUK has cautioned that by the end of April a litre of petrol could cost £2, a staggering milestone.

Clearly, there is more pain at the pump to come.

What can you do about rising fuel bills?

The most obvious way to tackle this is to be more discerning about precisely where you fill up. Check out our guide to finding cheap petrol and diesel.

Energy bills

Sticking with the subject of energy, this time for our homes rather than our motors. Gas and electricity bills are set to hit levels never before seen this year.

Last year, a succession of energy suppliers went bust as once again wholesale market issues meant that continuing trading was no longer viable.

It meant that an awful lot of households were not only shunted to new suppliers but placed on the standard tariff.

In days gone by, it was a good idea to get off these tariffs as soon as possible as they were always the most costly, but today you will struggle to find a cheaper deal elsewhere.

Crucially, these tariffs are covered by the energy price cap, which ‒ somewhat ‒ limits the damage for how much they will hit your bank balance.

However, we already know that there will be a sharp jump in the energy price cap in April, moving from £1,277 to £1,971 ‒ a jump of almost £700.

That’s bad enough, but there will be a second review of the energy price cap later this year, ahead of the setting of a new cap applying from October.

And it’s pretty likely that the cap will be increased once again, again given Russia’s position of importance within the energy markets.

The fact that the few fixed-rate tariffs on the market currently would land typical households with bills of up to £4,000 is a stark reminder of just how serious the situation really is.

What can you do about rising energy bills?

Normally we’d be pushing you to shop around for a new tariff now, but that isn’t really an option at the moment.

However, there are ways to reduce the impact of the energy price hike. Check out our guide to cutting your energy bills.

Cost of food

When it comes to our various monthly outlays, there are some expenditures which we simply cannot avoid, food being a perfect example.

However, it’s been clear for some time that the cost of filling up our trolleys is becoming ever more expensive.

There are various reasons for these price hikes; in some cases, it’s that individual ingredients are in short supply and so demand is making them more expensive, while in others it’s simply that food retailers are having to pay more just to get their shelves stocked and are passing that onto shoppers.

The war in Ukraine ties in here too, not just because the energy involved in producing those foods and getting them to the UK is going up, but also because of the food ingredients.

Ukraine is a notable exporter of wheat for example, but its farmers aren’t likely to produce the crop levels we might ordinarily see.

It’s not an issue that looks like going away any time soon, either. 

Research by the experts at Kantar WorldPanel found that grocery prices increased by 3.8% in a four week period at the start of the year, and if that continues over a 12-month period, it would work out at an extra £180 being spent on our annual grocery bills.

Given the increase in the cost of virtually everything else, that’s not money many of us can afford.

What can you do about rising food bills?

Reconsidering where you shop, and how you go about it, can be powerful when it comes to cutting down the amounts you spend on food.

At loveMONEY we put together weekly highlights of the best bargains and discounts at the major supermarkets, as well as pinpointing how the different stores compare when it comes to the price of shopping staples.

It’s also worth checking out our comprehensive guide to saving more when shopping at supermarkets.