Spiral Dive,
If you want cheap aircraft, you might be better heading North than South. The two schools at Leeds and two schools at Humberside have a variety of twins for hire and IRRE's available.
On the MEP / IR lapsing front, I did exactly that this year - let my MEP lapse, then did the ME IR renewal and MEP revalidation together which now has brought them into sync for future years. I had no hassle with this, indeed I was advised by an IRRE that this was the most economic option - I think the test is basically the same unless you let the MEP lapse for years.
Good luck!
foggy.