I am accountable to the people here for what I write, and I take that responsibility. I do not purposefully exaggerate or inflame a post, just to get people wound up. I'm here to offer what benefit I can to the group, from the experience I have been so fortunate to accumulate.
That said, I would not be a good person, if I posted wildly optimistic suggestions about how a low time pilot can expect to retain skills with long periods of inactivity. Sure, everyone is different, and demonstrates their skill differently - even occasion to occasion, flight to flight.
On this subject, I have put my sword in the ground at 25 hours per year, and that puts me in the group that has wrankled others. Yes, others, you can fly less, and probably meet a minimum safety requirement for a flight, if you have chosen good conditions which do not change much throughout the flight, and if the aircraft remains operating as expected, and some other unforeseen envent does not pop up to challenge your skill. Fly when you can. If you cannot, Oh well...
But, remind yourself, that if you are a 100 pilot, who flies once a month, it is unlikely that you are building new skills at any measuarble rate. You are perhaps sustaining the skills you have - how good are they?. If you're using that hour to practice and review airwork, forced approaches etc., excellent! That will keep you the sharpest. What I find myself sometimes, however, are client's "check" pilots flying with me, who have not flown a stall for years, have never, or not in memory, spun, and have never actually shut an engine down, then flown to to the point of not being able to maintain directional control (twin). It would be unkind to be critical of these pilots, but I find that in some cases, their role in keeping the flight safe has been reduced to reading the checklist to me. Despite the fact that they fly the IFR leg once a week
I am soooo lucky to own, keep my plane at home, and fly whenever I want. I am soooo lucky that clients have the faith in me to anme me on fleet policies, so I can fly whatever needs to be flown that week.
My appreciation of that privilage keeps me very firmly in mind of maintaining a minimum skill set appropriate to a broad range of aircraft types, so when I fly, I am at least safe. I can do it at an hour a month, but I don't like it, and I keep the conditions for that next flight agreeable.
Each new season, I talk the taildragger (yes, it is, 'cause the tailwheel collapsed once, so it did drag the tail) amphibian for it's first seasonal flight. I am by no means "fresh" on the plane. Steep refresher curve!
When you're flying something you have not flown, in what is a "long time" for you, think of the "swiss cheese" model of accidents - the holes all lining up wrong. Recognize that you're being out of practice is a hole all it's own, and the thing you just overlooked is a second hole which just lined up, you'd better keep that third hole from lining up too, or skills which just may not be there, are going to be vital.
I am empathetic that the cost of flying makes frequent flying difficult for some pilots, I can remember those days for me (when the rental of a C150 was $18 per hour - wet!). But, the environment of flying does not care about your finances at all, it cares about the demonstration of your skill!