I was like Englishal when I first got my licence, however I did actually stop flying.
When I passed I could only really afford an hour a month and as a result of cancellations etc usually spent part of that hour doing a club currency check. As you can imagine the lure of doing that quickly palled and I decided to take a break, letting my rating lapse.
After 4 years and once finances improved I bought a share in a permit to fly Auster for £3000. This costs me £55 a month and £45 an hour, so the first hour I fly every month isn't that much cheaper than renting. However the second and third hours are less than half the price. Obviously with a CoA aircraft the costs will be higher in order to cover the maintenance costs that a permit aircraft avoids, however it will (probably) be chaeaper than hiring.
To give you an example how this allows you to fly more, I have the aircraft booked for a couple of hours this weekend in order to take my daughter for a flight. If I was to hire this would cost me over £200, which would certainly make me think twice. However £90 isn't such a hit. I pay the standing charge by DD and consider it to be the same as a utility bill, so don't really notice it.
However as others have said, the real benefit you get from owning, be it solely or as part of a group is increased utility. If I want to take the aircraft away for the weekend I can without having to pay for a minimum number of hours, even if I don't fly them. I can just turn up at the airfield and (more than likely) be able to take her up for an hour or two without having to pre-book days in advance. Also, because the aircraft isn't used for training I am not going to turn up to find that it is late back and but that somebody else has it booked immediately after me and so my slot gets squeezed down to 40 minutes from an hour.
Andy