I would advise against buying the 'all-in-one' packs, mainly because there's a load of completely unnecessary junk in there.
Firstly, you're going to need a load of the Thom books - WH Smith does them for around 30% less than RRP, and they'll deliver them to your local branch for free.
Aside from the Thom books, you may require some other books (such as 'Principles of flight' by Wagtendonk, or the human factors one by Green et el) - Amazon is a pretty good source for these, as you know exactly what you're buying; definately check out the 'used and new' sections. Be a little careful of buying books of fleabay, as there are a surprising numbe of (very) out-of-date books on there, and most sellers just stick a blurry pic up with the title - would you want to be learning for your air law exam from the edition that came out 4 years ago?
Don't bother buying the Thom radiotelephony book; everything you need to know is in CAP413 which can be downloaded free from the CAA -
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP413.PDF
Fleabay is an excellent source of flight computers, whether you need a crap-1 or a crap-5. Pooley's will happily replace a missing manual (assuming your ebay one didn't have one) for free. Just make sure, when buying off auction sites, that the thingy you're buying is actually in decent working condition. Also, you may come across computers made by Airtour, which look a lot like the Pooley's ones - they're actually made by the same people, but they're quite old (Pooley's used to be called Airtour, apparently). In my experience, the Airtour ones work just fine. If you're planning on internet auctions for bits, plan ahead and allow some time to actually get what you need - these things tend to go in waves, where a (second-hand) CRP-1 will be going for £35 this week, but if you wait for a bit, you'll be able to get one for a tenner next week. Note the new prices (
http://www.pooleys.com/prod_list.cfm...18&menuHold=23 for example), then decide what the maximum you're prepared to pay for a second-hand one is.
You will need a protractor (square or round), a nm-calibrated ruler, and some charts. The charts should be bought from somewhere decent (eg. Transair), but you really only need a 1:500000 and a 1:250000 (and you can probably manage without the quarter-mil one) for your area, and they only cost around £14 each. The plastic bits can be gotten from fleabay from time to time, but again, you can get both from a shop for around £15. You'll also need some 'drawing on charts' pens - I suggest taking a trip down to your local Staples or other office shop and picking up a pack of super-fine permanant pens. The ones you want are often advertised as CD/DVD pens - you can get a pack of 4 in different colours for around a fiver. You'll also need a white board dry-erase pen (any size / colour you like) for removing markings from your charts once you're done with them. If you'd like to know more about temporary vs. permanant pens, just yell.
It might also be worth joining your local library. Most libraries have a book-ordering facility for books they don't have in stock, where they'll buy in the book of your choice for a few pounds - you're probably not going to read most of these books more than once anyway, so you might as well borrow them from a library.
If you're friendly with another student doing a PPL(H) (or PPL(A), come to that), you might consider sharing the book-buying burden: if you each buy half the books, then work out your exam schedule around each other, you should be able to share books. Most instructors / schools seem perfectly happy to let you write the exams in whatever order, but be aware that you need to have passed the navigation and (I think) RT theory exams before you'll be allowed to go very far from the aerodrome on your own.
Another thing to be aware of with the 'all in one' packs is that they're often designed for PPL(A) students. Most (reputable) retails will have a PPL(H) version as well, but there are some dodgy dealers out there on the wild wild web. As a helicopter student, you have very little use for book 1 in the Thom series, but the Bailey book would be quite useful.
In my opinion, R22s are too small to fit two people AND a knee-board into, so don't bother with one. A carefully-folded chart held with giant paper-clips (your local stationary / office supply shop again) will sit across your lap quite happily. Flight bags can be gotten quite cheaply from market or discount luggage shops - look for the large laptop-type bags - assuming you don't already have something suitable lying around the house.
As far as the training software goes, while it could be useful, it's completely not necessary. Everything you need to know (including self-test questions) are in the books - you just provide time and discipline. I personally would have been fairly miffed if I'd shelled out for the software, but on the basis that different people learn in different ways, you may find it way more useful than I would. Mostly, it consists of practice questions in exam format for the various papers, with some packages having graphical illustrations for the various concepts etc. - your milage may vary!
On a semi-related note, when budgeting for your PPL, remember that in addition to the 50-or-so flight hours, you also have to write 7 ground exams (around £20 - £30 per paper per attempt, depending on school), you will need a flight test (£600 - £700 ish?), plus any time you land away from base (think solo cross-country etc.), there will be a landing fee (up to £25ish, assuming you're not landing at Heathrow or Battersea or something). Plus the costs of study materials, obviously. When compared to the flight costs, these all pale into insignificance, but they can come as a nasty shock to your financial planning if you're not expecting them. Also, be aware that flight schools may increase the per-hour cost of using their aircraft half way through your course (due to rising fuel costs, for example); I know of at least one flight school that demanded that students who had pre-payed a block of 45 hours pay a fuel surcharge on their remaining hours (which may be illegal). Allow some emergency leeway in your costs planning!
Of course, if you have cash to burn, the pre-packed PPL(H) student sets do give you everything you need (plus extras), so if you can't be arsed to hunt around for bargains, they do provide a convenient way to buy.
All of this is based on my own, limited experience - I'm 31.5 hours into my PPL(H) at the time of writing, so some or all of this may not hold true for you. If you're prepared to spend some effort, you can save a metric assload of cash, and extra cash means more flying time. Which is good
