Can you find accommodation that includes energy costs? That way if the energy prices go up, you are not suddenly paying an unplanned for larger bill each month/quarter/whatever your billing period is. Find free local entertainment, rather than paying expensive amounts for film tickets. Read books ( not for research!). Sleep. Its free. It passes the time. Its healthy. Exercise by walking or running, rather than paying for a gym.

Another is the whole mobile phone, iPod, etc.thing, do you need a phone that takes pictures and plays music? A basic phone model with the most basic and cheap plan is surely all anyone has to have---if indeed you need the mobile phone at all. I know people think they are essential, but they aren't. Just try leaving it at home, and see. People ask how they can reach me without a mobile, and I say, phone me on my landline, email me, or knock on my door.

Food and cash expenditures are an obvious place to cut back. There are some things in today's world people think are essential, but are they? For instance, TV. How much does a TV license, and then payment for cable or other TV services cost? I have done without a TV for years,and really do not miss it. If I want to see something, its easy enough to find a friend or family member who wants to watch it.

That is a cost I am no longer willing to pay. The price of success that includes a sacrifice of the things I value and cherish outside of professional life is not worth it, to me. Mind, this is only MY opinion and based on my own experiences. Others may see it well different, and that is fine, but for myself, pay is secondary to the rest of what a job offers and requires, and whether I am going to be able to have some kind of life or whether the job is expected to fill all hours of the day and night.

Having lived in (reduced) student circumstances at Bleak Towers, I can tell you what I miss(ed) from my other life as a professional never had much to do with money. It had to do with the richness of a network of friends, family, colleagues, life activities, community life that was put to the side when I went to do the PhD in a foreign country. You cannot in my mind place a monetary value on those things, and a career of any sort that requires a sacrifice of those is not worth it to me. I used to be rather more single minded about wanting success of a particular sort, and not minding that it might come at some cost of personal life and relationships.

Doing HE in and of itself is a privilege, and there are very many bright people in parts of the world that do not get this chance, due to an accident of accident of birth and life chances associated with where you are born, colour of your skin, gender, religion, etc. For myself, my motivation is NOT what I can get out of it, in terms of money. I could have made endlessly more money if I had stayed in my profession, and pursued it with a money goal in mind. I am interested in being able to contribute something--something helpful, something positive, to the world, or a small corner of it, but even the desire to do that smacks in a way of conceit.

But poverty itself is a relative measure. Talk to an international student from a developing country and you might find very different and relevant perspectives on what poverty is. The housing prices in the UK are insane, the product of a very crowded nation! European cost of living is high, but there is a great deal that is provided by the government in return for high taxes, such as health care, roads, a fire brigade, police, state education systems, etc, etc, etc.

How much do you need to live? How much "should" anyone get paid? A supermarket worker is more essential in some ways than an academic to the function of society on a daily basis.

Very very close to Kings Cross is Argyle Square, and it seems to be nothing up B and Bs offering rooms in redone old Georgian or Victorian type townhomes. Tons of these are listed on Smoothound, and again, not fancy, but very close to the BL. Lots of travellingstudents, sometimes workers, backpackers, budget tourists etc seem to populate these.

It depends on the type of accommodation you want--but if you look at Smoothound.co.uk for hotels in the area, it lists them by price and has some reviews. I have used this a few times and have never really gone wrong trying to find something in the King's Cross/St Pancras area--which is where I am understanding you want to find a place. Try the European Hotel--its a basic B and B, but you can get en suite rooms, and a very good breakfast included in the price. Its not fancy, but clean and OK.

Also, maybe pay attention to what you are eating...its easy to rationalise that you are not eating an unhealthy diet, but if you pay attention, you might find its not as healthy as you thought. Lots of fresh fruit and vegs, lots of healthy whole grains like rice and some pastas, some breads, etc. in the diet will also do a lot towards halting weight gain and making you feel better!!! Keep us updated with what works!!!

I think the whole mind/body balance health thing is soooooo important, esp. when under the kind of pressure and strange schedules a PhD can bring. I think anything at all you can do to walk, take exercise, etc, would be great!!!! I tend to walk a lot just in having to get from Point A to Point B, and while this is not optimal exercise in some sense as its not really getting my heart rate up, it IS something, and I probably walk 2-4 miles on a given day. I think just start with something small ( so it does not add a feeling of pressure), like a walk at noon ( great way to get some sunlight!) and then go from there to see how you feel. I think I have lost weight since coming on the PhD probably mostly due to walking a lot and eating a more basic and healthy diet overall. Exercise is supposed to help manage stress, so I would think the benefits of doing any exercise would pay off not only in terms of not having that horrible feeling of your jeans not fitting, but in your PhD work too!

Before learning more about it I had some idea that somehow the software did intricate calculations for you in coding. While it does have sophisticated features, it does not do this, and gives you options to colour code your data. I prefer hard copy as I said...but there are probably other people who prefer this program to hard copy. To some degree, its probably just a matter of individual preference. I wonder too if somehow using a computer program gives a feel of more sophistication to the analysis, somehow upgrading its worth over hard copy data. But again, given that the program does not do your coding and analysis for you, in the end, the evaluation of the data is down to the researcher(s) involved, and whether its via hard copy or a computer, I think the choice should be whatever works best for themselves and their data.

I think its pretty standard software for doing qualitative coding. I am not that familiar with it, but what I have had experience with looks like it would work great if you are very comfortable working on a computer scree v. hard copy for coding. There is no particular magic in it, it does not do your coding for you, you are still identifying things as you would if you were working from hard copy. Perhaps its just an age thing, but I am happier working with hard copy when trying to code, than on the computer screen. I did not see any particular advantages in working directly on the screen v. hard copy coding, other than perhaps saving yourself big piles of paper. But I have those anyway, so that is not a particular issue.

I have a tendency to make my own plate a little too full, and sometimes have conversations with my supervisor, about whether it is worthwhile to pursue a conference submission or even just attend one without presenting--and this is not a reflection on my progress. Rather, I think its about sounding out priorities, and trying to identify the advantages gained by taking on something "on the side".

Is there ANY possibility of raising your concerns with your sup, and just say you are concerned about how your work is percieved after the viva, and could you and sup/s engage in a short, medium and long term prioritisation of your work, including talks, conferences, etc?

I never really thought about any meaning related to the order you are included in emails, except perhaps when you are a copy, rather than main recepient. Suggesting that you focus on your PhD and not a talk is perhaps NO reflection on thoughts about your performance on the viva, but a matter of prioritising what you do and where your supervisor thinks your time and effort are best spent. It is very easy to get sidetracked off your main research with conferences, talks, other projects, trying to publish, or whatever, all of which are worthwhile pursuits, but in some respects have to be secondary to making sure your research is the main focus. Perhaps your supervisor thinks that doing a joint talk is not particularly helpful for this stage of your development, without that being a negative.