I took the route of buying after I had passed my PPL. So far I only have a few months of ownership but this is how it has worked for me so far.
Cost of Aircraft (Jabiru Microlight) - £16000
Cost of conversion to Group A - £135
Cost of LAA membership £70
Insurance £900 per annum (newly qualified Pilot will go down a bit)
Parking Costs £90 per month.
Fuel 12 litres per hour and I am budgeting for 100 hours per annum (Mogas)
Cost of servicing (can do myself £100 per service so £200 per annum).
If I was to do the same on my club aircraft which is a Cessna 152 then it's £112 per hour so for 100 hours would be around the £11500 mark per annum.
If I take out the initial cost of the aircraft (as there will be some value when I sell it in the future) then it's costing me approx. £3500 year all in. This does not take in to account any unexpected bills but speaking to other owners the spares and work is very reasonable on a Jabiru.
If I estimate that over 3 years then I am looking at £10k or there abouts on my own aircraft or around £33k on the club aircraft doing the same times. Even if I factor in £2k per annum of unexpected bills then I am still winning.
I personly think that the LAA route is the way to go if you don't want to do IMC or night flying and want it just as a hobby to fly around in. The Jabiru equals the performance of the Cessna 152 in terms of speed but uses half the amount of fuel. Not so good if you are really big but there really isn't that much more space or available weight in the Cessna.