As an instructor I can tell you that flight simulators are very good and very bad at the same time. If you use the simulator in conjunction with what your instructor is teaching you each session then they are fantastic and can help reduce the time that it takes to for you to learn to fly. If you use the simulator on your own and then go to an instructor they can be very bad because it's very easy to learn bad habits. Since these bad habits will have to be "un-learned" your time to solo will probably increase. I've had students that I have started to teach have some of the worst habits I have seen because of the time they had spent on the simulator, it easily doubled the time it took me to teach them to fly. But if you go home after each lesson and practice what your instructor has taught you that lesson, then you're going to be ahead of the power curve. Let your instructor know that you have a simulator at home, most good instructors will use the simulator to help you learn by giving you things to work on while you are at home.

Hope this helps.

Ken