'but it's a tough old world out there without a PhD!!!'
Dude, trust me.. it's a tough world *with* the PhD and if you want to work in industry, you can face suspicion as to 'why you did a PhD' and academic jobs are like gold dust...
I applied 9 months before my funding finished as most of the vacancies were advertised a long time before they started... PLUS, a lot had 4 stage applications... an application form.. an interview... a group assessment center... sometimes 2 assessment centers... this took time.
Depends on the industry but I would make damn sure that as *soon* as your funding ran out, you alredy had a job you could walk into.. so I would start looking about 3 months before your funding runs out... as if the worst happens, you could always overlap...I did for 2 months...