Thank you aliby. You have a point. I am already a bit shy about asking for money; and I had enough of begging for money from my supervisor to be honest. I just want to know my rights so I'll feel better when I ask for my expenses to be covered. And my supervisor doesn't seem to be the best person to ask this (he knows how to sweet-talk around the subject). I will ask HEFCE and my research office to send me some information about the budget. Thank you again.

Thank you very much for the replies. I wonder if I have a right to ask them the certain amount and what's happening with my budget... And why do I have to compete with the rest of the staff when it comes to getting money to go to conferences etc and applying for school-wide grants to cover my research expenses. So annoying. Aliby, how did you find out about what ESRC says your research budget should be use for? Were you given any documents? I've looked everywhere on the HEFCE website before and couldn't find anything.

Good luck with that.

I know it is a bit silly to ask this on my 3rd year but isn't there a yearly budget for research students to use? (I am funded by HEFCE). I am undertaking a practice-based PhD and the stipend I receive is not enough to cover the expenses. I can sometimes claim travel expenses from the University's Staff Development Fund, but whenever I need to get something for my research, my supervisor's first answer is "there is no money left in your research budget". How is that possible? I've never used it. Do the supervisors need to use this money for on our behalf for other things (hidden expenses etc)? I even had to fundraise publicly for my last project. Only my supervisor has access to the research budget, I don't even know how much this is. Is there a standard research budget, or is it a university-specific thing? What is your situation (do you have access to your budget for example)? Thank you in advance.

Hi H I hope you are well. I haven't noticed the off-topic section. Thank you for pointing it out. My research is going ok, but I have some problems in accessing the research budget (which I will submit a question to the forum in a bit). How is your research going?

Congratulations Dr DJWickid. Good luck with the small amendments. You gave me hope. My aim is to finish by September (when the 3-year funding ends).

is postdoc stipend also tax free?

Hi Piglet. I hope you had a nice holiday. I got back last week to the forum; since then I've been reading some of the threads but to be honest I can also see the difference; it's not much fun these days. The forum is now full of simple questions from new starters; they don't even bother searching the forum before asking these questions. It's only been couple of weeks since they've started their PhDs but they moan and complain about silly things...

That's so sweet . Watch him when he talks to other people about daily stuff and then compare his behaviour to how he acts when he speak about the similar things when you are alone. Is it different? Can you sense different energy from him (but don't confuse this with your feelings). If you feel his existence in the room in even without seeing him, and you always bump into him just after thinking about him, then it is very likely that the feelings are mutual (I think).

Dear Chris,
Please remember to set me to the time you want to wake up. Asking me to wake you up is not something I can understand.
Best regards,
Alarm clock

Hi paulasbrito. I think the best thing would be to speak to your research office and get a document showing the number of days you can take off in a year. This is different at each university. I have 35 working days holiday a year. I've never had a chance to use any of my holidays yet (just entered the 3rd year) but the great thing is, when the University is on a term break, I feel like it is holiday for me too . Check this thread:
http://www.postgraduateforum.com/showmessage.asp?thread=4879&cat=4&keyword=holidays&newview=1&stype=TM&category=0

Hi pea. It's great to see you too

Hi Ann. Nice to see you again

Hello dear forum friends. It's been a while. I hope you are all well. I am finally back to my old routine. I've probably missed out on a lot of fun here. I look forward to chatting to you again on the Postgrad forum. Have a lovely weekend.

where as if you were a plum pudding, you would be firm and the level of your sweetnes would be just fine. Not over the top as in custard pie.