Personally, I found it more helpful to team up with a much more experienced PPL IMC. This meant that I could immediately set off on longer trips in more marginal weather and visit lots of new places. With the right partner you can enjoy a very quick learning curve.
The only downside, if you are sharing flying once a month, is that you find you are not doing many landings and, in the Winter months, you can find yourself worrying about the 90 day rule.
The other thing you need to think about before deciding to fly with another PPL no matter how experienced they are. You need to be very clear about who is in command on each flight especially in those inevitable hairy moments.