I would recommend the saving up and battering it to death approach as well. There are guys at my club who started well before me who still haven't got their PPL. No reflection on them, they are perfectly capable, they just don't fly frequently.
Conversely it took me about 9 months without really straining to do my PPL, Night and IMC. I must stress I'm no superman when it comes to flying, I just had the money saved up and also could fly more or less anytime, plus I didn't have to think about money if the weather was going to be CAVOK for a week and you have chance to put ten or so hours in.
The more often you do something the quicker you learn it. You need to think about flying afterwards as well, the money pit doesn't stop when you have your license...
I came to powered after 20 odd years of gliding, purely because I could only afford to glide and I didn't want to do the 'dribs and drabs' approach to getting a PPL. That doesn't mean that gliding is second best, far from it, most glider pilots would say it requires far superior piloting skills. It's a superb sport that has without any doubt at all made me a better powered pilot.
Good luck anyway and above all be it microlighting, gliding or Class A, enjoy it!
Edit: Just realised your post was aimed at instructors and experienced pilots, apologies for butting in!