Yep, and the real problem is that half of the stuff you only buy because the CAA insists on living in the dark ages and teaching us how to fly as if airoplane design never progressed beyond Tiger Moths. I've never once used a stopwatch for flying (wristwatch seems to do the job pretty well and I already own one of those) and the whizwheel is immediately redundant the day after you pass your exam.
Buy as much stuff used as you can and sell it on to the next student when you're done with it.
Unfortunately, though, as long as the CAA is populated by people that don't actually seem to know anything about flying, we're stuck with this nonsense.
Once you get past all that rubbish, though, flying in this country is a real blast!