Hello all, I've just had to spend about £100 of my money on a damn book that I've been waiting forever to receive from the British Library. I'll probably never ever in a million years look at it again when I've finished my research! So, though it may be modest by comparison to many of you in this forum, I seek solace by asking whether any of you have had to spend anything similar (or more?!)on something related to your work?

I'll be paying £75.00 for a BL duplicate microfilm next month. I have spent a fortune on books because my uni library has had its budget slashed.

sigh.

Yeah, I'm in a similar predicament and having to fork out more and more because my library seems to have less and less. It's just when my wallet hurts from it I hurt too hehe

£150 library fine! I returned a book but the system didn't register it Unfortunately, it was an expensive edition. Typical.

Huge library fines- also have had to fork out a fair bit on travel costs (hundreds) which I should be receiving back but it takes forever to get everything in motion...

Hey, I've booked a conference for April which costs £475. However, I am flying from Ireland and spending three nights in the UK (albeit in the cheapest hotel possible). I have already used up my conference allowance but need to go to this one. I wish conferences weren't so expensive

Blimey, I do feel better now! In fact, I don't know why I've even moaning because I haven't had to pay a gargantuan library fine, buy multiple books or pay a small fortune to travel to a conference. Still, if I make it through my first year, there's always the following years.

Conferences are sooo expensive. I don't even know if they provide any value for money because the accomodation is often not even included. So what do we get for our money? A CDrom or book with the proceedings, a biro, a delegate batch, the chance to listen to presentations with audiences of up to five people but not much else? Please don't kill me now but I usually check where the conference is, and then just walk in without being an official delegate. Saves me a lot of money, although I still have to pay for the accomodation. Never been asked why I don't wear my badge. Obviously, I am actually registered when I present myself.

I'm self-funded so £2k (so far) on fees

I can't believe I actually pay to put myself through this torture!

i'm with you there, sixkitten. funded my first year and a few months of my second (fees only for the first, got a grant for the second year's fees). cost me - well that's quite easy: all the money i had (about 12000£) plus some.
it does make you wonder. you gotta be really quite committed to your PhD to put all that money into it.
(and that is not even counting the loss in earnings)

I'm trying to price up the cost of losing my sanity...

You sort of start to wonder if its not like a system where everyone is taking in each other's washing! I mean, who READS all of the mass of publications, but other people desperately trying to get published or finish a degree--its just sort of self perpetuating--as well with conferences--who goes but the same groups of people who need to get conference stuff on a CV for one reason or another?

Shhh, Olivia - don't question the system too loudly

You've hit the nail on the head Olivia. So much of this is self perpetuating. Sometimes it gets to me, but other times I just enjoy starting to be a part of this bizarre little world. I guess it depends what area you are in, as I;m sure a lot of papers in some subjects have relevance to the 'real' world. But if you look through a typical list of papers at a conference in a lot of areas (mine included) you'd struggle to find anything of value outside.

But as Chris says, don't question it! If *they* find out what's going on we;ll all have to work in banks or something!