A day before trumpeting profits to rival a Bond villain’s ransom, British Gas announced it was putting up its prices by 35%. That caused uproar, but it seems it was only half of the story: the 35% figure was a national average, with our region - the east - shooting up by a far more substantial 43.9%. Effective immediately.

This is despite the fact that British Gas’ profits have risen 500% to £571 million in the last 12 months, and that its parent company, Centrica, banked £1.96bn in the same period. The companies’ public image was hardly enhanced when they announced bonuses for their directors the following day, and the papers pointed out that they coincided with a fall, not a hike, in the cost of oil. That went down from $147 a barrel to a more reasonable $123.

Needless to say the TV was full of commentators and ‘experts’ telling us all to turn down the thermostat by a degree or two - as if we hadn’t already thought of that - seemingly never spotting the fact that at this time of year, when the thermostat is usually down at zero anyway, you can’t take it any lower without coughing up for air-con.

You can blame it on inflation or corporate greed - your choice - but the truth of the matter is that prices are rising, and not just in terms of fuel. I don’t often remember what I pay for groceries from one shopping trip to the next, but on a late night trolley-push around the local store last night, two products stood out as having shot up.

Malt loafs, which for as long as I can remember, have been two for £1, were tagged up at £1.12. A 12% increase. The cat biscuits that I’d bought six weeks ago at 30p a carton (I remember because the cat goes through them so fast that I picked up a palette of 10 and it cost £3) were now 68p a pop. That’s £6.80 for the same palette, or an increase of 126%.

Now there’s not much you can grow at home to feed your pet, unless you’re keeping a vegetarian rodent, and you do have to heat your home, but with prices rising these are two good reasons for moving towards self-sufficiency, and that’s excluding the fact that the shorter food miles save on petrol.

By relying less on your local store you naturally save money in real terms. More importantly, though, every year you keep on growing your own food is more profitable than the last: not only do you get better at encouraging a higher yield, but the value of your produce is higher, too, thanks to increasing global crop prices.