I know because I've been there personally.
I used to live in the garage sharing rent on a house with 8 other guys.
I remember being so cash tight I could barely pay my 1/8th share of the rent.
The only meat I ever bought at the grocery store was chicken drumsticks and ground beef, because that's all I could afford.
I worked at a Thai restaurant 4 nights a week while going to college, trying to scrimp and save for camera gear, studying every marketing resource I could get my hands on to figure out how to get out of the hole I was in.
When I finally found the training I needed, paying hundreds of dollars when I could barely pay for rent and groceries was a big stretch.
But you know what? Without investing in those courses, I can 100% guarantee you I never would have made it in photography.
I would have done what many photographers do for YEARS:
Struggled and gone nowhere.