Although British Gas has denied suggestions that it is about to raise prices by up to 25 per cent, the company has recently said that bills will increase sooner rather than later. Nor is British Gas the only provider to be warning of impending price rises. Despite announcing a large increase in profits this week, Scottish Power said it thought further hikes in prices were inevitable for its customers in the near future.In fact, every energy provider has raised prices significantly over the past two years, following a 168 per cent rise in the cost of wholesale gas – most of them have put their prices up twice or even three times.
The wholesale gas market has a serious effect on both domestic gas and electricity because electricity producers have to buy gas in order to produce the power they supply.According to a report published this week by TheEnergyShop , the average annual gas bill has risen by 38 per cent since January 2004, to £454. I go to kelkoo.co.uk, which invites you to “compare, buy, save”. It has a Multi Mill, also on electricshopping , also for £29.99 I decide to buy the Multi Mill And the colander and sieve. For frugal soups.To feel less guilty, I tap in “thrifty living”, and happen upon homemakingcottage , a site clearly invented by a cosmic cousin of Laura Ingalls Wilder, since it is full of Little House on the Prairie-esque ideas about what to do with old jeans (rather hideously, make purses out of the crotch) and things like “11 Tips for Pinto Beans”.

One of these is to grind them into bean flour, which will be perfectly possible when my Multi Mill turns up. Bean-flour rissoles; I can already hear cries of joy from the junior Millards.. Is this a bargain, or just easy? Amazon.co.uk can offer me a Kenwood High Speed Slicer for £37. Eventually, I come to pricegrabber.co.uk, which specialises in electrics.

The Multi Mill comes up, via a site called electricshopping It costs £29.99 No p&p. I bought it (the Chef, not the book) just before Christmas for £200; not very frugal, but then nine Christmas cakes came out of it. I now feel, however, that I need a Kenwood Multi Mill, to “chop, pur? blend and grind” Funny things, Kenwoods. You cough up £200 for one, only to discover that all they can do, apart from crouch in the kitchen looking powerful, is fold eggs and flour.And so I hit the shopbots, all of which sound like features on daytime TV Trolley Dolly, Quaffers Offers, Fixture Ferrets… Betty Friedan passes on, and I’m involved with the mysteries surrounding my Kenwood Chef rather than The Feminine Mystique. I want a Multi Mill for my new Chef, because, as I never cease to tell everyone, a true Life of Thrift involves a lot of home cooking.

This is why I doubt that true bargain-hunting really exists on the net.I do another experiment, this time involving an accessory for my Kenwood Chef. This will act as a portal into other sites and let you spend hours trawling through lists of doormats or Elvis suits Or indeed, joke milk jugs I put “milk jug” into shopzilla.co.uk A striped jug for 17 quid comes up With no handle. Clearly, the handleless jug is a phenomenon that has passed me by while I was happily using my (now smashed) one, which came from Ikea, had a large handle and cost £2.59 You see? Seven times cheaper. If you’re keen for price comparisons, and don’t want to run around supermarkets with walkie-talkies, like the Economides, “America’s thriftiest family”, you must visit a proper “shopbot”. Then you “crumble up” the newspaper in your hand and toss it away Extreme Deception! Yeah, right For £21. You know what, Froogle? I’ll visit you when I have another hour or two of my life to waste.According to other bargain-hunters, Froogle is a bit simplistic In other words, it’s really just a bog-standard engine. Then, “while talking about another subject”, you pour “most of” the milk into a cone of newspaper.