Ah, well first of all-good luck!
I myself use TechnologyCerts because they are much cheaper, but you are using your wifes money anyway so that doesnt matter 
Career Saver has some great adaptive software and training materials that are well worth checking out.
KNowledgebuster has free practice tests-mostly just for bragging rights tho LOL

I tend to lean the same way, chrisj.  Most bootcamps I have attended (read 5-day intense courses) have always been geared to pass a certification exam, but only serve as a baseline intro to the real 'meat and potatoes' of the actual subject matter.  The only real experience-garnering cert bootcamp I took class for was OSCP, and that's because they actually force you to self-study and work for it.  Even the infamous CISSP classes are highly condensed, and obviously focused on passing the exam, as there is way too much info to really 'learn' and comprehend, in such short amounts of time.  While yes, certs will get you past resume keyword searches, they certainly won't get you past a real, technical interview, simply by themselves.

It's a cold, hard fact that there are a lot of 'paper' certified individuals out there...  Case in point (and if any of you fall into this category, my apologies if it offends,) at many customers I deal with, the network folks (read CCNA/CCNP, etc) have only book knowledge, and fight tooth and nail against my analysis, forcing me to prove out things that, for a 'real' network person, should be common sense.  Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of real, true certified folks, too.  Just that the 'paper' ones are detrimental to good business and productivity.

I have a friend who is a CCNP and sits on the hiring interviews for the network guys at the company she works for.  She can usually tell within 5-10 mins of starting an interview if they are a boot-camp CCNA or someone with experience.  Over the last 2 years, 60% of the interviews haven't gone beyond 20 mins and only about 15% have made it on to the test lab rig at the back of the room to show their abilities!!

In my opinion from taking all the certs you are wanting to take there is no need for videos or cbt in my opinion. I was much like you where I worked on pc's from a young age and taught myself everything I know. The CompTIA tests can be done with a single pc or 2 without issue. Lab what you can but for the most part it is more memorizing then anything. Once you get to the higher end certs then labbing will really come into play. As for the Security+ cert there is a really great book that I would recommend. I used this pretty much for studying and got an 850: http://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Security-Certified-Ahead-SY0-201/dp/1439236364/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1302814343&sr=8-1

Good luck with your studies.

Thats what I'm really going for: I want the certs to be the byproduct of education, not the other way around. Anyways, I've decided to go the college route and am currently looking at Western Governors, ITT, UAT, Kaplan, and Capella. Really like WGU but not sure if I would be able to get in. Maybe you guys can help me out. I have a HS diploma, 2.9 GPA, and my wife makes $44,000/yr. I'm unemployed do to it being very hard to find a job (especially when you have a felony  ). Think I'd be able to score financial aid? I'm at community college right now and they are giving me enough to pay for school and then some since I'm also 26 so no parental finance bs.