First of all, Sean, congratulations on obtaining your PPL! It is a marvelous achievement of which you can be justifiably proud. We all welcome you to the club.
As to your post: It did seem rather like an advert, but I have to admit that you walked a fine line and did not cross it.
But I rather liked this part:
During the time I was working I had one simple rule that helped me save money:
“if you don’t need it, don’t buy it”
If it’s a mars bar in a petrol garage, if it’s some new trainers when your old ones are still fine, don’t buy it! Granted this is a harsh way of living...
Heh. Harsh way of living? Not buying things you don't need? My boy, that is exactly how my parents lived their whole lives - and they did not consider it "harsh." It is also the way many of *my* generation still live. I do not consider it harsh either. It's called "living within one's means." It's a concept that seems foreign to young people these days. And I say that in full recognition of how old-fogey-ish it makes 56 year-old me sound.
Quick story: Young, low-time commercial pilot I know obtained a low-paying, seasonal utility-flying gig in a remote part of the country. But to actually move up to where the job was he had to borrow US$250 from me. I almost considered it a gift, but strong were his promises to pay me back out of his first paycheck.
Well you know that didn't happen. Not with his second paycheck either. Or his third. Or even his last.
When the job ended and he returned to this part of the country, stayed with me while looking for another job. The first thing he bought (to my surprise) was a notebook computer even though I offered him the use of my old desktop. Nope, my old clunker wasn't good enough. Then I noticed that in his car he had a Garmin GPS! One that must have cost him at least a couple of hundred bucks. His reasoning: The part of the country he was living in was desolate and he needed the GPS to find his way around. My reasoning: There are some mighty fine PAPER MAPS that can accomplish the same thing.
Point being, young people in 2010 have a vastly different attitude towards spending (and repaying) money that those of my or (especially!) my parents' generation. And the evidence of it is that you consider it "harsh" to not buy new trainers (I think we call them "sneakers" in the U.S.) when you already have a perfectly serviceable pair. That's not harsh, son, that's just reality.
I didn't mean to hijack this thread. Really, it's great that you got your PPL. I hope you can use it and enjoy it! But given these economic times, I suspect that lots of people are going to learn (or relearn) the lesson my parents had to learn in their day, when there simply wasn't any "extra" money lying around to use to splurge on new sneakers when you already have a perfectly good pair.
(I did get my money back from my young friend...eventually...when he finally felt like getting around to it.)