What I would strongly recommend for any
initial instrument qualification is to get a basic sim (FSX will do) and hammer that until you know the procedures fully.
One should never get airborne in a real plane unless one knows everything one is supposed to be doing when up there.
Up there is no place to learn procedures, yet that is exactly what most instrument pilot trainees end up doing. It is a slow process because one's brain is so overloaded just hand flying the plane.
So, get yourself FSX, a cheap £10 stick (no need for a yoke or pedals), a pile of old approach plates, and make sure you can fly every plate which somebody sticks under your nose, within 5 minutes.
I saved myself many hours, and four figures, with FS2000, on the IMCR training. After that, on the FAA IR, I never used the sim because there was nothing in the FAA IR which I didn't already know. Similarly, in the JAA IR, there is nothing I new (apart from a load of NDB hold stuff, ADF dip estimation, etc
).