Please note I am only posting this out of curiosity to see what you'll all say. I'm not relying on STW for an actual decision 
I was a contractor for a fair few years, and when I finished in August I didn't do a good job finding a new contract so I took a permie job in October. In those few months out of work I ran up some pretty big bills that need paying, but not urgently. The permie salary is ok and things are comfortable, and in theory it should allow me to learn some great new skills but more importantly it should allow me to progress my career up the food chain, allowing me to really coin it in should I return to contracting in the future.
However someone just called me with a contract I could do now and that could possibly make double my permie money which would get me right out of the financial hole immediately. BUT it's only for six months initially...
