I think people with funding are incredibly fortunate.

*green with envy*

I find it hard to believe that living on £800 a month you could have saved £5,000 a month. You would have to be pretty darned thrifty! Then again..if I didn't have to pay over £200 for my CDL each month maybe I could....but even still....you must be incredibly thrifty....

My career development loan repayments (for my MA) cripples me....god I hope I get PhD funding next year! Luckily I get mt PhD fees paid for me....

£3,000 a year - that isn't much all. After tax I earn about £800 a month and that goes nowhere....

I'm in uni each day because I work there - but most of my PhD work gets done either at home or in the computer lab in the early hours...

I see my sups' on a monthly basis and maybe in the corridor or odd seminar in between.

ewwwwwwww...

I thought you meant well dressed and armed with a sharp tongue.

11pm on a Saturday night!

Eek...yes, I'm glad my supervisors have no expectation of that sort of availability. That said, they do expect me to adhere to deadlines.

And a good scarf too...a nice quality one that'll last a few winters. Mine has seen three already - but could probably do with a wash. But then I don't want the wool to pill...
Ohh the dillema!

Sorry, travel fares (not fairs...goodness, I'm practically illiterate)

Yes, it is very unfair esp. if it is a big conference.

I presented a conference paper at my home uni last week and really appreciated the conference lunch they laid in for the speakers - it was a nice gesture. Conference organisers needs to bear such things in mind - however small. That said, picking over lunch is perhaps a bit of a moot point when travel fairs are so prohibitive.

I am resolved to using megatrain.co.uk and megabus.co.uk when I have to organise my archive visits...

I had to pay for the last conference I went too.

I'm dreading having to start to pay for research trips to archives and stuff...

Oh! I'm so jealous, well - partly. Do tell...

I agree too....they're only designers. I'll make do with H & M until I'm rich....my PhD in history/museology will make me rich!

Formless CK sweaters,modelled and loved by Kate Moss as mid 90s grunge-chic are SO over.

One of my supervisors is a very snappy dresser. But yes, as a rule academia is devoid of a fashion sense! If I see another formless sweater, I will scream*!

*formless sweaters are great for wearing at home or whilst gardening, but should not constitute part of an outfit.

And people would cite designers as freely as published names in papers....

...an academic parallel to 'The Devil Wears Prada's' 'Runway' magazine....the coffee, long hours, rivalry....

I just wish I had the clothes too!

*image of myself stutting down the 70s asbsestos clad hallway wearing Karl Lagerfeld, clasping my latest lit review draft in a leather bound LV file...sigh....*