I had my PPL back in the 80's. and mainly flew a Cessna 172. As Herb said, it's not a cheap endeavor. I would rent a plane when I had a few extra couple of hundred and go up for an hour or 2. On my last flight, I had rented a 172 at Scottsdale airport and had gone up with a buddy for a 90 minute flight. Upon landing, I was in the private terminal finalizing my logbook, when my original instructor came in. After a little chit chat, he asked for a look at my logbook and said "Dude, you're flying just enough to kill yourself!" I noticed the blood drain from my buddies face, and my instructor said I needed to fly a lot more than I was, or quit. I quit.
A couple of years ago, I inquired about getting re-certified, and then talked with my life insurance agent about it. He said I would get dropped from my current provider, and it would be very expensive to replace. That was that.