Live on £4000 for a Year, 2009 Challenge, part 1

thriftylass

Taka, I'd say go for it :T. It opens up more options even if it seems at the moment that you won't really make that much more money afterwards judging by what you said about a 60% paycut. I got 10k tax free as a PhD student, most get now between 12 and 15k. So that's quite good although I guess it depends how big your mortgage repayments are. Also writing up time depends on how you organise it. Bits you can start early like methods and the intro. I took 3 months but I only actually spend 1 month of this writing (could have finished in 1 month if I would have done it 6 days a week 9-5, took three months because that was the time to starting my first job and I spent loads of that time painting the flat rather than writing ). Plus I would recommend full time because of the commitment it takes. I've heard of people were it took much longer than planned part-time.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions since I've been trough it.

purplevamp

ram-murdock - soup sounds fab. Do you have the recipe, pretty please?

skint_chick - :T That's an enormous amount to pay off, well done!

redglass - :j great news on the job! But sorry to hear you're leaving the challenge.

taka - if you want to do a PhD then go for it, if you feel it's what you want to do. Any change can be scary, but sometimes we have to have change (iyswim?)

Well today I got out of bed just before midday , after a weird dream of being in an old sanitarium having a chat with Marilyn Manson :rotfl: ,and I was aching all over. I'm still a bit stiff now. I had a NSD today, just as well as yesterday I popped to Mr S for milk and naan and spent, ahem...£52 :eek: . Made some apple shortcake with the old apples, not good for the waistline but good for my happiness.

I also opened my sealed tin today and had managed to save £184.11 :T . It looked more when I poured it out onto the carpet, but it was still a nice amount.

taka

Brighton_belle wrote: »

thanks Cw - sometimes I am denser than a dense thing - I've been told about this proceedure before but never pick up on it.
Taka - no need to apologise... a great first step when saying the scarily unsayable
I think you said before that your line of work may have a sell by date with funding? So this sounds an excellent way to increase your future earning potential.

Yes... I reach the top of my grade soon. In theory I could go onto the next grade with no PhD but would mean demonstratable further responsibilities. Essentially it'd be doing a post-doc (someone who already has a PhD) job but not having the PhD. It would be difficult to get funding unless someone wrote and got a grant specifically for me to do the job. I would not be able to advance further than that grade. 99% of jobs advertised at this grade require you to have a PhD.

Otherwise if I can't manage to get onto the next grade can't really go much further than I am now if I want to stay doing research.

...Then again if I do the PhD I'll be too old for some of the early funding options after completing the PhD which isn't great either! :eek:

I guess with all that has gone on in the past few years I want and need things to change. I want the challenge. I want the responsibility. I want the recognition for my work. I want to step out of my safe (too safe sometimes ) comfort zone... If I don't do it I will always wonder if I could have done more and I think that'll be hard to live with long term. As I was told once... You can't fly with one foot on the ground! (see sig!) I want to fly... :rotfl:

*wishes there was a stompy foot smilie*

Thanks thriftylass! I'm lucky that my mortgage payments are low (on a fixed rate till summer 2012) so a stipend in that ballpark would allow me to live on my current budget and still add a small amount to savings to cover the unknown at the end of the PhD. I already have savings that should hopefully cover repairs/emergencies. If I struggle with this too much I could move into my boxroom and get a flatmate or even move home :eek: and rent my flat out as this would cover the mortgage. I agree about the part time PhD but it would make me finantially much more secure so I need to find out if it is even an option so I can make a balanced decision. It was mentioned in the interview for my current job that a PhD was not an option with this job - but that was almost 5yrs ago.

... back to work... :rolleyes: its finally time for my timepoint :rotfl: ...

Frugaldom

taka wrote: »

PPS Nyk - yeah chickens:j :T but 1 question... how many are you aiming for? 2 dozen eggs to hatch sounds scary + the 3 you already have!

:rotfl: Other hens were laying in the same place, so many of the eggs won't hatch, but we've no way of knowing which. I'll need to leave them all there for the next 2 to 3 weeks and see what happens, or else get a really strong torch and inspect each individual egg. All I know, for now, is that Mrs Brown is sitting on a pile of eggs in the blue nest box and Mrs Black is sitting on a pile of eggs in the red nest box. There's even a chance that all the eggs will be empty, in which case the hens should start laying once the eggs are all gone and they've moulted. It's just kind of postponing egg production in Frugaldom Gardens.

grandma247

purplevamp wrote: »

Well today I got out of bed just before midday , after a weird dream of being in an old sanitarium having a chat with Marilyn Manson :rotfl:

That wasn't a dream that was nightmare :rotfl:

Skint_Lynne

Hi all,

Not much to report tonight, I am getting boring in my old age methinks. Still not started cleaning the pigsty, and I'll be cracking on with my mailshot tomorrow. It needs to be out for Monday.

I've just remembered that I've left my sister's lunch for tomorrow in the car so I'll need to put something on and go out and get it. I've to make up prawn cocktail for her, I forgot all about it........oops.:p

At least I've remembered before it's too late. Friday again tomorrow, the weeks are flying in. It'll soon be car boot season, I've plenty of stuff for selling from parent's old house, so it should be quite good for a while.

Speak to you all tomorrow. xx

redglass_2

*pops head up from lurkdom*

I didn't read the spaces either, Taka, so have just understood... You're not mad at all, just brave. Go girl! :j:j:j
Thanks for all your kind words of encouragement, everybody.:T

*drops down again*

boring_beige

Taka - i would say go for it. if don't try, you will never know. so many people seem to work through college, uni and promotions at work. Not really knowing what they want, or where they want to go. If this will take you where you want to go, its well worth the risk.

redglass - nice to see your post.

so far this month i've haven't bought anything except food, phone and mobile. so hopefully it won't be as bad as i thought.
I'm planning a fruitcake for mother's day with some chocolates, i picked up on Bogoff a few weeks ago. Mum seems to buy what she wants, when she wants it so I have no idea what to get her, that she will actually value.

Frugaldom

Well done on the sealed pot, Purplevamp :T Is that the same sealed pots we're supposed to keep sealed until December 1st? :rotfl: If so, I think mine has about a pound in it because I'm hardely ever using cash (attempting to build up my aptly neamed egg money cashback).

Cold and wet here today. Frugal chick is sprouting wings, Mrs Black is sitting tightly on her eggs in the nest box and Mrs Brown decided egg sitting was no fun and is running around the run squacking at next door's cockeral. I lifted out the cold eggs (all 22 of them!! :eek: ) and made sure there wasn't anything in them that could have been rescued by way of the incubator. I think it's as first thought, though, the hen had just been sitting in the nest where everything else was laying their eggs. This might mean I'll start to get the odd egg from her soon. :j

Hope everyone is doing well, it's almost the weekend and we're also nearly half way through March. Make Friday the 13th a lucky day - 50p sign in bonus today on Butl!n$ B!ng0 if anyone does their free scratchcards. I'm up to £40.05 this year so far between 2 lots, not bad for free cash.

Hope nobody minds but here's a piccie of Mrs Black. Mrs Brown wouldn't stay still long enough to get a decent photo! :rolleyes: I can tell already who is going to be the cheekiest! :rotfl: (It's not off topic, it's a frugal hen that's to live on a cash neutral budget.)



Sophiesmum - the red nestbox is made from one of the plastic tubs I mentioned elsewhere. Do you think these would make good planters?

sophiesmum_2

Tub looks fine for planting Nyk - just drill a few drainage holes. Loving the pics of the chickens:D