I find angling very inexpensive for the pleasure I get from it. I don't belong to any clubs and never buy day tickets or fish commercials, this keeps the cost down considerably. My only inescapable cost is obviously the yearly rod license, maggots cost me about £2.20 a pint if memory serves me correctly, I don't buy them often.
Coming from the Liverpool area, I can fish numerous park lakes for free once registered with the council. I have the canal just up the road, and fortunately have access to a couple of small lakes that are free to fish.
I source the vast majority of my bait very cheaply from the supermarket; bread, sweetcorn, bacon grill etc. I make ground bait from old biscuits, frozen old bread, bird feed etc. Costs next to nothing. I will occasionally buy a big bag of crushed hemp for about £4.
My main rod can be used as a 10ft float rod or 8 / 10ft quiver tip, cost me £49, and I have a second hand Shakespeare reel.
I have an inexpensive drop shot set up, and have spent a good few quid on lures but they will be seeing plenty of use over the colder months.
I lived down south for years and don't think your location is THE major factor in how expensive your fishing is. I know plenty of people here in Liverpool that have grands worth of tackle and happily spend a fortune on bait and day tickets. I'm sure there are plenty of people down south that are happy to dig up a few worms to fish on the local cut, without a barrow creaking under the weight of their expensive tackle collection.