[yeldarb]

Is $200/mo really a huge barrier? That's about the equivalent of 1 college credit at a local University & you'll probably learn a ton more.

[jareds]

What happens if you power off the resources when your not using them? Unless you need them running 24/7 you can probably save a lot if your willing to manually start and stop them.

[peddling-brink]

Set it up with terraform. Learn terraform while learning k8s. Tear down everything including the control plane and nodes when you’re done. That can be really cheap.