As you pretty much have picked out your application, datalogging of sensor data I would suspect that you wouldn't be getting the most bang for your buck with a 'starter pack' but if your electronics knowledge is at zero that is the a good way to start out with very simple circuits and build up skills and confidence.
As far as starting out I think the Uno is the best entry board until proven you need more I/O pins or your sketch has grown too larger to run on a Uno, which should not be that likely for a sensor datalogging application.
Uno boards are available just about anywhere, but I can recommend a very cost effective shield board that any datalogging application would require and that is a SD memory card and real time clock shield. The one made by Adafruit is particularly cost effective, well designed, and they have free software libraries for downloading to help using these functions in your sketch.
Lefty