If you find anything please let us know!

Stipends are not taxed. I personally have one that is about 18k - yes applaud my jamminess and don't have to pay tax

HOWEVER it could be that your supervisor is taking the £ out of some other fund i.e. a research fund to pay an RA rather than a PhD student so he might not be able to give you loads. Having said that most PhDs are on about 1000 a month. Failing that he could be creaming it off the top haha

whoa there cleverclogs! Although I do enjoy my PhD, I pretty much do it for the title and the networks and esteem it will bring in my field. And why not? Its essentially a 3 year job and I get a title at the end and a nice qualification. Why not aspire to that? I could just as easily (and for the same pay) worked on the checkout at [insert supermarket chain here] and after three years had no title - or perhaps a sticker on my badge to show loyalty 8-)

And the titles will never disappear because the people running the system have those titles and they are there to set us apart in a horrible elitest way - isn't it great!

And apparently you get cheap car insurance with Dr! - that is SO why I am doing it.

the real question is - how many of us feel annoyed that we could have probably finished a medical degree by now and been a 'proper' doctor? or a vetinary course and be treating ickle bunny wabbits"

me for one!

well its actually just reanalysing 40 interviews. They only take about 3mins each - just going through counting codes, so I should really just say, "I will do four today" but it just never happens. Mainly because I only have NVivo installed on my laptop and tend to work on my desktop, and my laptop is near the tv - nuff said!

You will have to add your supervisor on as second author anyway, so they won't care what qualifications you have. Often BSc projects will not be in depth enough for publication in academic journals, but I say go for it!

1) autonomy
2) flexible working
3) I was unemployed
4) I don't have to pay tax or council tax
5) I can be highly regarded without much work i.e. I'm a doctoral student dontcha know?

well, I've always had the cheapest of the cheap pay as you go mobile, but have moved house and now don#t have a landlline, so thought it was worth getting the iphone. Yes I think it is worth it considering for the same no. of mins/texts its about the same costs as other touchscreen phones anyway. It is really useful to check email etc on the train/bus - means you can go in a bit later but not miss out on anything important. Although you have to watch yourself with the games :$

You have to be careful not to spend too much in the app store. most apps cost between 50p and £5 but if you buy a few you can easily spend £10-20 a month which can get expensive!

I don't know who is offering the best deal orange or o2, I'm on o2, but I heard orange impose an internet limit of 750mb I think (have no idea what that means!).

well done both! Glad to hear you are on a roll again teek, I know it seems so awful when you aren't working and the awful feeling just gets worse and worse and you feel even more like you can't do work, so its great to break the cycle. My aims for tomorrow

- yes - actually do some of this stupid thematic analysis that has been on my list since starting this thread
- finish of presentation

I find that I sometimes set myself ridiculous goals and then get disappointed when I don't meet them - so taking baby steps!

ok, so although my aims changed over the day today I have done

- emailed people for sup
- started presentation
- sent off writing to supervisor albeit being rubbish
- have completed graphs for presentation so don't spend all day tomorrow doing them

Can we have an app for iphone that beeps at you every time you are trying to procrastinate please??

good luck ev. I'm struggling with school child at home (not mine!) but trying to get stats done before dinner arrives - chinese :$

OK, So I have sent supervisor really crap writing which has about 1000 words in it and then about 3000 words of me saying "I'm going to write about this here" urgh - oh well, it's something!

I have done her emails and I am half way through doing some stats to put in the presentation slides that I want to get done today so it doesn't leek over in to every day this week and ruin my PhD!

Diet coke break I feel 8-)

haha I love Louis! He is one of my 'shouldn't but woulds' the paul daniels one is the best

congrats, if I knew what that is I would join you!

The supervisor call has scared me in to action and am trying to pull together some of my writing to send her this afternoon aaaaargh