Don't quit! Quilt! We are sort of in a similar boat...sorta. I'm a college student so my funds are extremely limited.
So I shop at joanns and hancock fabrics where I can get fabric cheaper, because it is on sale or I have a coupon (I have been looked down on because of this, but I don't care). I try not to buy all my fabric at once. I slowly collect fabric so it's not such a shock to my wallet. And I get my almost all of my patterns free from the internet, handouts at my local quilt shop, or from books at the library.
But as far as free motion quilting goes...I can't help you there. I just found a way to quilt (with a walking foot) on my very crappy, basic machine that always seems to be inches from death. My machine just can't do it. All I can suggest is make a lot of quilting friends who will either teach you some things or maybe let you borrow a machine for a week. That's may be stretch...but maybe not. That's about all I can tell you.
Good luck with your future endeavors!