Most freelancers I've spoken to have advised that you should allow for a good 3+ months' salary in savings while you initially set yourself up and get contacts/work. Bear in mind that once you've invoiced a company, it can take anywhere from 30 days to 90 days to actually get paid - depending on how good payers they are.

I know our company (a small design/advertising business) don't usually pay suppliers until 90 days from invoice date - personally, I think that's too long for the freelancers we use as you sometimes need to rely on them at short notice and they, understandably, aren't that keen to pull out all the stops to rush in. Can't say I blame them really.

What I'm trying to say is, if you're giving up your full time job to go freelance, whatever your minimum monthly allowance is to cover the basics allow for at least 3 times that as a buffer.

Would you consider taking on a number of free jobs to increase your portfolio/customer base etc... (i.e. for friends etc... before actually taking the plunge and actually leaving work)

Scratch that... my dream is to have a job that I enjoy and allows me to live in a flat without struggling at the end of EVERY FRICKING MONTH!

You must be paying a LOT... or not get paid enough, looked at moving up North? Plenty of dev jobs going (some even pay close to London non-banking prices)

Only ever work for free if the scope is explicitly defined, you call the shots and work to your own schedule.

Even then I would only consider it for a charity.

The advice I've heard is to have a years wage in the bank before you make the break from regular employment, unless you've got good, trustworthy clients knocking on your door. 3 months is, I'd suggest, too little. Assuming you find work straight away, and spend a month on it, invoice them after that, you might find they still haven't paid you for 8 weeks. I've known it happen. All it takes is for one [LIFTED] to shaft you early on and you're stuffed.