A recreational pilot’s permit is an option here, but you can only carry one passenger so it is kind of useless if you want to go flying with more than one person.
But as others here have said: Hobbies cost money. I think of flying as buying an experience and a memory, and that’s worth it to me. Some people might pay $15 000 to go on a trip somewhere and have nothing to show for it afterwards other than memories and photos. (Heck, some people would even pay upwards of $150 000 to get frog marched up Mt Everest only to have anyone who knows anything about mountaineering think them a poseur and an id10t afterwards, but they still do it.)
Hobbies are a privilege and they’re frivolous, but they make life fun.