Eion (pronounced Ian I think),
How much money have you got? Rhetorical question - no reply required. If you can only just afford the ppl(h) stick to planks until you have saved plenty of pennies. I reckon that you would need to comfortably be able to afford at least an hours self fly hire a fortnight after you have paid for the ppl. I personally think that you need an hour a week to get value for money out of the ppl. I am sure others have differing opinions on how much flying you need to do to get value for money. But once a week and 50ish hours a year would be a minimum I would set myself to remain current. But that's another question.
It would be shame to spend all that money and never be able to afford to use it.