There are many ways to skin a cat, as the saying goes. As WWW has posted many times, you can achieve an fATPL for around 35K if you buy and budget carefully, and work hard enough not to require any remedial training! Taking the modular route, it's possible to continue working while using leave (unpaid if necessary) to do the compulsory attendance courses. Sure, you might have to give up the 50k job and work part time on building sites or whatever, but it's in the cause of trying to achieve the life you want, isn't it?
If you live in London and you don't earn a lot, get out! Your living expenses will make it very difficult to release enough cash to save towards anything else, let alone an ATPL course. There are plenty of cheaper places to live, and jobs do exist outside London!
If you have property, great - you're lucky that the surge in the market over the last 5 years may well fund your training. But I'd caution against anyone attempting to start down that route now. The property market is at, or near, its cyclical high, and there aren't the profits to be made that there were (unless you are a professional property person). Property values are likely to stagnate, or even fall, over the next few years, while interest rates are rising - though probably not too high. You are not going to fund anything from an asset that does not appreciate while costing you more to own!
There are loans available for your training - check out the HSBC threads of a few months ago. The jobs market is improving markedly. Even Ryanair is likely to have to change its MO under the combined pressure of the market and the pilots' likely move to BALPA and IALPA. Earnings for most pilots are likely to increase healthily as the overall market improves - and you can tell the bank that, as an example, earnings at Virgin Atlantic have improved by over 22% this year alone.
At the end of the day, it's down to how much you want it. If you really want it, you won't be put off by girlfriends, parents, living situations, or even debt. However, while the relationship difficulties can be patched up (or brushed off), debt must be managed, so be careful!
Scroggs