I'm similar to you, always wanted to learn to ride but never got around to it, then my husband said he wanted to learn and I knew I could never be a pillion. My cbt was about £90 I think with a local school, I bought my helmet, jacket, gloves and boots in advance (£130, £230, £40, £80) but that's just because I wasn't sure if the school would have stuff that would fit me. I then bought a 125 from a dealer (£1800) which was a good thing in the end as it needed loads of work which was covered by the warranty. I finally did my full licence after about 9 months of commuting on my 125. I took a few goes to get my mod 1 so that added up but third time was the charm and I found the mod 2 easy thankfully. I dare not think how much those tests cost but it was all worth it