I did a lot of hood work with the safety pilot and it paid off big time! I saved about $500 doing that. It might be good to knock out the x-country time and the IFR time together as it might save you money.
All of my time was logged as PIC during my IFR training, except for when we did the simulator work. If you're able to do sim work, I recommend it as that saved me an additional $500 - $600. Just curious, what state are you doing your training in?
Have fun with it! It was my favorite rating to get on the fun factor scale.