You should be able to pick up another vintage Kenmore, Singer, Universal............for under $50. The vintage machine forum here has tutorials on cleaning and maintenance so you can clean and repair it yourself. I'm in the same boat as you are, and I've found several machines really cheap. You also may want to post in the "wanted" page on CL for a free machine. I did that several years ago and had 4 machines offered to me within 3 days. Of course, they all needed some minor repair work, but they were free!