Shifty,
First of all, you will get a better deal than flying at Essendon. For whomever it was said that Pearsons donot charge landing fees, is ridiculous, the landing fees would be absorbed in the hourly rate.
Secondly, you don't have to do all your training through the one provider, look for the good deals on the seperate endorsements/ratings. Word of mouth can be good but is not the only recommendation......BE CAREFULL! There are some providers that can provide genuinely subsidised accomodation due to where they are located, subsidised or cheap flying training? If it is ultra cheap, there's usually a reason........BE CAREFULL!
To fund pretty much all of my training, I used to save up half of the cost of the next thing I wanted to do and pay the other half from my wages as I go. I also got a few interest free loans (from the olds) towards the end of the road.
In the in-between times while I was saving for the next thing I would build hours by doing joyflights for mates and I had a family member who used to grab a few mates and we would go away for weekends and split the costs. You can do skydive flying with a PPL for extra hours still.
And one final thing:
DONOT, (FFS), PAY FOR ANY FLYING, UP FRONT, IN A LUMP SUM..........EVER