Back on the topic of simulators, they are great fun, and can be useful towards latter parts of your training, such as nav ex and instrument appreciation, but can definitely be a hindrance when starting out, as you effectively teach yourself to only look at the instruments.
I distinctly remember my first few lessons in 2011. I'd been simulator flying since I was 9 years old on FS2004, then at 11 I got FSX, and kept flying with this. Fast forward to me being 15/16, and I had 7 years of flight sim 'experience' under my belt. I could conduct a perfect flight, handle emergencies and my use and understanding of most of the instruments was great.
Then, I got into a real plane and went for a flight. It was so difficult for me to get out of the habit of relying purely on instruments, and looking 'outside' the aircraft was an alien task. After a few hours, I started to realise that all I had 'learned' on FSX wasn't very useful when it came to transferring skills. At the beginning of my training, I was hours behind where I was expected to be, I believe mostly, down to my simulator flying.
Fortunately, I took a break from flying for 5 years, and didn't really touch a simulator much in that time. When I came back to it in 2016, I was ready, and managed to gain my PPL in minimum hours (but only because I picked up things like the navigation and the small amount of instrument flying a little bit quicker than was expected (according to my instructor).
To summarise, flight sims are great fun, but can be detrimental to your learning. I think I'm going to start using mine again as I'll be starting my IR soon, and I understand it could come in useful for that.
Best of luck