Odd how some interpret Lend Lease and other aid to the UK before, during, and after the War. Yes we were "late" to the battleground ashore but then we had no duty to defend the UK as we were not bound by Treaty to do so owing to our independence from European obligations such as the UK had. Both World Wars got started by mutual defense treaties that drew nations into the war.
I would suggest the Bankruptcy of the UK came not from Lend Lease but from the sheer cost of fighting a second World War so soon after the first one.....then compounded by having to defend a colonial empire while doing so.
Every time I hear a Brit say we were late to the fight....I recall the sinking of American Destroyers escorting convoys such as the USS Reuben James. I also think of my neighbor who flew Lancasters for Bomber Command and those like him.
If you find Lend Lease expensive....what of the alternative?