... would probably only scrape together enough cash to purchase an hours flying time per month ...
A couple of points:
At this rate, getting the license would take well over 4 years, unless your learning is stellar, and the weather, etc is perfect. But you also talk about paying in full up-front, so I assume you are talking about the ongoing cost post-PPL.
One way to stretch the hours post-PPL is to fly places with another PPL buddy, one leg each. No extra hours to log
, but it should help with currency, safety, workload and be more fun. And pilot pax are easier to please!
On the pre-pay: some schools do offer a Gertrude-style discount for just staying in credit (much less drastic than paying everything up front). I have done this - I suppose it helps the school avoid bad debts, and gets you in and out of Ops faster. But I did that PPL in 6 months, so my effective interest savings rate was very high. (Divide total discount on all the lessons by average credit balance times length of course, then multiply by 100).