John TT - where abouts in Midlands are you? I am just north of Nottingham and learned to fly at Netherthorpe, EGNF.
I passed my PPL last month. All in with equipement etc... as it took me 12 months to do it all it cost 6.8k. I passed on 48 hrs which was the key.
I always found out what my lesson is likely to be be and practised before hand on flight sim, read up on 3 books i bought as well all instructing the lesson so when i got into the aerocraft (cessa 150 Aerobat) I was as prepared as i could be this paid dividends.
I found some of the instruction very limited, ie questions I had could not be answered. Or sometimes my instructor would show me Steep bank turns etc... and they would do it ****, I would do it better etc.. somewhat worrying. Having said that i tried all the instructors to find out which one suited my learning and I did all my groundschool in one week at slightly more cost but its the best way for me to learn.
The other key is to know your weaknesses or area's you think you will not be good at For me it was groundschool , hence my approach. And believe it or not, navigating does not come easy to me - however i focused on these area's a lot to ensure they did not become my achilles heel.
The club in general i flew with were great and supportive. I flew any of the the aeroplanes as they have several of the same type - i didnt want to get into a point where i had a favourite etc.. as this only prohibits your learning.
I made many mistakes, but learned from them quickly. Since November to march, when it was deemed I was ready to take my skill test - i could not get down on week days due to my role and many weekends were cancelled due to weather. To the point I managed only a further 3 hrs before doing y skill test and this was just to ensure I wasn't completely rusty.
Ultimately - how you do is answeered by what you want from it, what you can afford(i flew every sat & sun last summer to get the hours in) and most importantly how committed you are and only you can answer that.
Be prepared and do your homework, practice practice practice. Take control of your journey, sometimes I would roll up to flying and ask what i would be doing today - their answer sometimes was, i dunno what do you want to do...
so even with slighlty rocky instruction at times it still depends on you and how you manage it etc...
When you learn there ar some amazing milestones that give you a sense of emotion and feeling that is rare to get in other ways.
first solo.... first XC, the XC Qualifier etc...
lots to do, lots to learn and lots of challenges. Above all - an amazing acievement when you pass. If you need 14k to pass, i would suggest you stop flying because it's prob too dangerous for yu and thers lol.
Good luck!!
Tris