mad_bear,
I can understand how you feel as it took me a long time to get confident about flying around my local area even after I got my PPL. I found it helpful to choose a few landmarks around the area and to work out the approximate compass bearing relationship between them and to my home base. Get to know those landmarks well and, as long as you know roughly where one of them is, you can quickly fly a heading which will bring the certainty of seeing it, even in reduced visibility. You will then, with practice, develop a sense of spatial awareness based on compass bearings. In my opinion it is important to develop this skill before getting used to having a GPS.
If you are into FS2004 with VFR scenery, you can practice this in your local area at no extra cost.