int vs mod
Much good information above, just to add my 2p, there’s a lot of speculation about the cost of mod vs integrated, bear in mind the prices quoted apply only if you finish everything on minimum hours with first time passes in everything. Not everyone manages that (I certainly didn’t) when you consider that OAA charge around £500 per hour for a twin plus instructor and a CAA skills test cost about £800 for a full skills test and about £500 for a partial (I not certain of the exact figures) plus rental of the aircraft for the test, a fail, partial and/ or extra tuition can easily push the costs very high. Sensible advice would be to allow a contingency (maybe 15%) on top of the basic cost to cater for this eventuality.
I definitely echo the sentiment of finding employment and saving up a fund before starting training and remaining employed for as long as possible throughout training there are some modular schools that will support students that want to train for CPL/ MEIR part time. Even doing this you will find money leaving the account quicker that it’s going in but at least you will have something going in and you will have Plan B if you don't find employment immediately after finishing training.
On the subject of living costs during training, there are many more modular training schools in the country than integrated so its more likely that there will be a modular school within commuting distance of where you live so you will be able to live at home while training with the same living expenses that you would have even if you weren’t training.
It will be interesting to see how aircraft like the Tecnam twin impacts on training costs, it’s reputed to be much cheaper to run than Seneca, Duchess or DA42 and some training schools (Airways and Aeros) seem to be taking it on. It will be interesting to see whether the reduced running costs will be passed onto the customer, whether maintenance costs are less than the competitors and whether the aircraft is robust enough to cope with the abuse and high usage rate that students will impose on it.
As mentioned earlier whether you went integrated or modular, first time passes etc etc are all very nice but timing is by far the biggest factor in finding employment.