Oh mate I feel for you, I bloody hate wasting money!!
I went for a dynachip remap in the end, cost me £250, I went for as much low down torque as possible, with vast improvement in the mid range too! So Mike said I had a "very strong stage 1".
I've replaces intercooler with new standard size one as previous had a hole, and I've made an ally blanking plate that blocks off from exhaust manifold as I didn't fancy spending dollar on a removal kit etc. Also new maf which makes a big difference!
I can now pull 5th from literally 25mph with no hesitancy or struggle at all, makes for a lovely relaxed driving, overtaking just put your foot down, no gear changing!! And also no smoke, I made sure this wasn't going to introduce any unreliability at all, as id rather of stuck with no remap at all than worry about it all the time!