Yep engineering isn't all that reliable a career, I can testify to that. If you've got time on your hands, and at the risk of sounding flippant have you considered setting up a couple of website side-businesses, a few of my mates were made redundant and have scraped by living on what used to be their sideline/holiday fund. Just a thought... although it can take a at least 6-12 months to build up decent traffic.