Google Money Advice Service and see if there are any templates there. There are probably mobile apps too. Alternatively, crack open a spreadsheet, list your regular monthly expenses in one column and their amounts in the next, and add them up.

Accept that there will always be a need for repairs - you need to include those in your budget plan. e.g. if every year you end up spending £200 on car repairs then you should be putting aside £20 a month specifically for that in anticipation. You may want two savings accounts - one for dull stuff and one for fun. Make sure they are ones that you can take the money out of at any time without penalty.

Check on your finances/bank balance regularly (at least once a week). Identify any bad habits and find ways around them e.g. if you're always paying on your debit card and losing track of your spending, take a fixed amount of cash out for the week, and you're not allowed any more (unless it's an emergency). Check each day how much you have left that day and recall where whatever's gone has gone.

If you've had a regular amount going out by direct debit to pay off your credit card, set up a standing order for the same amount to your savings account - you're used to that amount going, so keep up the habit.

You can build up your savings even in small amounts - e.g. if you check your account online and the amount is, say, £207.52, transfer the £7.52 to your savings. You won't miss it, and if you do that frequently (rounding the small amounts down and sending the difference to your savings) it will soon add up. It's a lot easier (I think) to put aside 4 x £10 at different points of the month than to put £40 aside in one go, but that might just be me!

How are we all getting on? Still zen?

Depends on
1. What country you're studying in
2. Your subject area (arts, humanities, science etc)
3. Variations between different universities and departments.

I'm not sure what the overall cost for an MSc at the OU would be, but they charge on a per-module basis. Details here: http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/fees-and-funding

A face to face 1 year MSc course elsewhere in the UK will be about £9000 for a UK/EU student and £16,000 for an overseas student, though it varies a bit depending on the course and the university.

I can't see me ever doing a second PhD. I see very little value in the concept, except in some very specific circumstances. The reasons people give would often be best served by a masters/diploma, post doc or regular job. I would, however, consider another Masters and have my eye on one I'd like to do in a few years when I've recovered from my PhD!

KimWipes, I don't know where you're based, but in the UK a lot of people in your situation would consider doing a degree via the Open University (http://www.open.ac.uk/) which offers long distance learning in modules that can be taken one at a time over several years, or as a regular degree if that is preferred. It reduces the cost and risk. In fact there are quite a number of well respected providers of distance and flexible learning (e.g. http://www.londoninternational.ac.uk/). Might be worth considering. It's also worth noting that most UK masters programmes are just one year, or 18 months tops.

I get brassed off with the entire PhD funding/academic training/pyramid scheme career pathway thing. Of which I guess that's an aspect.

The more I understand about academia the more I think it's a mug's game. Unless your PhD is on a specific topic/gives you specific technical skills that is/are valued outside of academia, then a PhD is never a good career move.

Yes, http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/ is a good source of guidance.

What's your field?

I'd recommend spareroom.co.uk. I used it successfully twice - once when moving to my PhD location (where I didn't know anyone), and once when undertaking a short term placement elsewhere. It's pretty good for finding shorter (<1 year) rents, or searching for particular personal preferences.

Gumtree could be used in the same way but whenever I've looked at accommodation on there things seem a little sketchy!

Treeoflife, a systematic review is not exactly the same as a literature review. It involves pre-specifying clear search terms to identify every piece of literature on a topic within certain parameters, and often leads to a formal analysis of the information gathered via a meta-analysis.

LostOne - how long should it take? Depends on the topic and how much literature! In my field it's not unusual to find thousands of abstracts, which take time to review. So it really depends on how much literature is out there. Two month sounds reasonable - I know of many that take much longer.

The thread started 4 years ago...

Hopefully the OP reached a satisfactory conclusion to the situation.

I'm coming to the end of my PhD and my social life is restricted at the moment, but I think it would be unwise for me to cut myself off completely.

Working all the time is not necessarily productive - you might only get the same amount done per week, but just spend longer doing it. Having sociable things to break up the work can be a good motivator and is certainly likely to be better for your mental health.

If you really are struggling to find time in your diary to see friends then double up things to make it efficient. Instead of eating alone, share dinner with a friend/go to a restaurant together. Invite a friend to do some kind of exercise with you e.g. game of tennis (keeping good physical health is also important). Go and do some work at a coffee shop and invite a friend to drop by towards the end of your session.

Realistically, the social invites that come your way might not be suitable for you right now, but it's possible to create opportunities that fit more around your schedule.

In laboratory biomedical sciences, Masters degrees (rightly or wrongly) used to be considered a little superfluous - one only did one if you didn't get a 2.1/1st, or your BSc was broad based and you wanted to specialise or switch to a different speciality.

That perception may have changed in recent years, particularly as PhD places have become more competitive. Hopefully someone with more up to date knowledge of this can comment?

There may be a stigma, but I think there are other things to consider. First, what would you gain by doing the MPhil? You will still have to start from scratch with a PhD, unless the MPhil supervisor is going to provide further funding in the future. Secondly, what could you be doing instead? A research assistant job (elsewhere) would give you a similar experience and better pay. On the other hand, would being in the lab of a well connected academic help you to network?

The stigma aspect can be explained away in personal statements/CVs by making it clear that the MPhil was a standalone affair. But it is the other questions that would put me off it more.