Edit: Right now we're at minimum difficulty again and dustcoin says 600% profit level. Personally I'm mining TRC coins effectively solo, I'm testing a new pool I'm working on. Have found a couple coins the past couple days though, so I don't feel I'm wasting my time with my single GPU, lol. And a 20 coin block turns into a few dollars on BTC-E. Generally, I sell all coins as I mine them. I'm much more interested in mining/pooling than currency speculation.
Great to see "working class miners" out there still. In my opinion using coins is the only way a currency is going to work. People hoarding coins only work to weaken the coins longterm prospects, sure they may make some personal gain but at the expense of the coin actually gaining real use.
I'm like you in that i mine and then either buy something with the coin or trade it. i cash enough coins into GBP to pay my electric bill and what is left over I try to buy something with or save it up so I can buy stuff later. My long term savings are at most 5% of what I've mined.