I have to say, a couple months down the line from making this thread:
Initially I thought it might be possible to use mined BTC to fund part of my gapyear travels later in the year, but it dawned fairly quickly that this is pretty unrealistic. Yet I'm still mining BTC now. Why? Because it's a bit of fun and a challenge I guess - I've cobbled together an assortment of old parts lying around to reduce the costs as much as possible, and I've had a great time trying to get 110% out of this pile of shite!

So although it's not at all profitable (at least for me), the vibe here is just great, and I'm very much looking forward to spending my hard-earned BTC @ BitBrew.net.