G SXTY,
Sounds like a good plan....was thinking pretty much the same thing myself! I thnk if there is anything good that could be said about the current situation, it would be that it's going to enable me to slow down a bit and consolidate my finances a touch so at least I'll have fewer debts by the time I get to CPL/IR. Yes, things are tough and I'm sure they will get worse before they get better but I spent a hell of a long time agonising over my decision to change career and longer still getting financial backing - I'm certainly not going to give up now!
I'm pretty lucky in that there's no problems with job security in my current profession!