no-sponsor,
Cheers, however, I'll just clarify a few points from my personal budget.
I am close enough to Oxford and Shuttleworth that I commute for the exams. Some would say that stopping in a B and B is better, but I have young kids, a wife and I am already paying £1100 per month plus bills for accomodation so I try to use that whenever possible
In addition 1 hour of studying on the BGS web site at home is worth 2 hours anywhere else I reckon.
Likewise, £100 per hour for hours building in the UK is viable if you really look hard. It does mean a minimalist old 152 with dubious smelling upholstery, but if you can navigate one of those round the UK in 30 knot winds and rubbish weather then you build some very valuable experience in some of the most congested airspace in the world. As a note I'm flying from a fully serviced ATC controlled commercial traffic airfield with CTZ for £105 per hour at the moment!
The IR price is due to go up but does include £600 of landing/approach fees in the price stated. I suspect they are being a little conservative with that figure but hey let's see where that one goes.
I don't have massive loans to service, and have negated accomodation costs and reduced transport costs by looking at local FTO's. To this end I also drive a very tatty looking LPG fuelled jalopy which I do a lot of the mechanical work on myself.
I haven't had a foreign holiday for years, and so far the process has taken 4 1/2 years with at least another 8 to 10 months to go. Likewise between eaxms, hours building and maintaining a dayjob, I get 4 or 5 hours free time a week!
However, compared to integrated, the £15,000 to £20,000 I save will buy me a Tyyyyyyppppe.........bad boy in your box! It will buy me an FI rating after it all, increasing my chances of employment wihtout a huge debt to service and with the security of my current job and associated income throughout. Job market a bit slow, delay the IR, or even do the FI before the IR!
Flexibility, determination and feet on the ground common sense all appear to help massively IMHO.
Impatience, reliance on credit, lack of understanding and recklessness is a screwed up life waiting to happen.
Regards,
Obs