A dad on a Tesco trip was shocked to see how much the cost of a humble cup of tea would set him back - but not for the reasons you'd suspect.
Shopper Mark Hodgkinson nipped to the supermarket for a few essentials while also tasked with picking up a new kettle for his mum.
But Mark, from Clay Cross, Derbyshire, says he did a double take looking at the receipt when he noticed the milk he'd bought for his family amounted to more than the appliance.
The dad-of-five says he managed to find the "world's cheapest kettle" reduced to £1.90 and "most expensive milk" in the same shopping trip, with a six-pint bottle coming in at a dear £2.35.
The 20% price difference, he said, was "unjustifiable".
The 1.7l kettle, retailing at £13.90 on the supermarket's website, was slashed to a fraction of the price in the store, prompting him to pick up two further for himself and a friend.
But the family-sized bottles of milk he said wouldn't go far in his family after they recently welcomed a new baby, with the price difference not making "any sense whatsoever".
"You buy two bottles of milk, and for nearly the same price you get three kettles," he said.
"We're a family of seven, and we had a newborn baby last week. Those two bottles of milk will probably last two days if we're lucky.
"We struggle with things such as gas and electricity.
"We've always said the kids wouldn't be cold, and some days gas and electricity are costing us £18 a day.
"It's horrendous. The cost of living at the moment is absolutely horrendous, this is maybe an example of that.
"How can you justify a kettle being £1.90 and a bottle of milk being more than the kettle? I was just flabbergasted. I got the world's cheapest kettle and the world's most expensive milk."
Mark shared a picture of his receipt on social media with the caption: "When a bottle of milk costs more than a kettle - something wrong in this country."
Low-fat milk is one of the supermarket items to see some of the biggest inflation rises in recent months, alongside essentials such as olive and vegetable oil, cheese and pasta.
Mark's post racked up more than 1,000 likes, with many baffled by the price difference.
One wrote: "We can buy petrol here cheaper than milk."
A second commented: "Nothing is right in this country right now."
A third wrote: "Baby milk is very expensive too, so if you can't breastfeed or want to use formula it's a hefty price for something that has to be bought."
While others claimed the milk was a reasonable price and that the kettle was simply 'reduced for clearance'.
One commented: "£2.35 for a big bottle of milk is fair. Should be more expensive really, considering the costs of milk production.
"The kettles are reduced for clearance. No point to your post."
Another wrote: "Milk is still too cheap for what is involved in the cost of vets, food, etc."
Tesco said the milk was price-matched to other supermarkets.
