How I Planned My Cybersecurity Budget on a Delivery Driver Salary

The Anxiety Nobody Talks About

When I decided to break into cybersecurity, the first thing I did was not watch a YouTube tutorial or sign up for TryHackMe. The first thing I did was open a spreadsheet and have a small panic attack about money.

Every “how to get into cybersecurity” article I found seemed to casually mention $400 exam fees, $2,000 bootcamps, and $500 laptop requirements like everyone has that kind of cash sitting around. I was pulling $800-1,200 a week as a delivery driver in Sydney, depending on the week. After rent, fuel, car insurance, and groceries, there was not a lot left for “investing in my future.”

So I did what any anxious career changer does at 11pm — I made a spreadsheet.

The Spreadsheet That Changed Everything

I called it “Cyber Budget — Don’t Panic Edition.” Very professional. Here is what I tracked:

That table was the moment I realised this was actually doable. The upfront cost I had been dreading was mostly one exam fee, and I had months to save for it.

What I Found for Free (And What Is Actually Good)

I spent an entire weekend researching free alternatives to everything. Not all free resources are equal — some are genuinely excellent, and some are free for a reason. Here is my honest breakdown.

Genuinely excellent and free:

• Professor Messer’s CompTIA videos — This man is a national treasure. Full A+ and Security+ courses on YouTube, mapped to exam objectives. I cannot overstate how good these are.
• TryHackMe free rooms — You get a solid handful of beginner rooms without paying a penny. Enough to know if hands-on labs are your thing.
• CompTIA exam objectives PDF — Free from comptia.org. This is literally the exam blueprint. Print it out.
• Cybrary free tier — Some introductory courses available for free. Quality varies but the SOC Analyst path preview was useful.
• NIST Cybersecurity Framework — The actual framework is free to read. Dense, but free.

Worth paying for (but only on sale):

• Mike Meyers Udemy courses — $15 when Udemy runs a sale, which is roughly every other week. Entertaining teaching style. Wait for the sale.
• TryHackMe Premium — $14/month. I have not subscribed yet, but I plan to once I finish the free content.

Not worth it (for beginners):

• Any bootcamp over $1,000 — At this stage, you do not need it. Everything a bootcamp covers is available free or cheap online.
• Multiple cert exams at once — One at a time. Save, pass, then save for the next one.

The Rules I Set for Myself

After the spreadsheet calmed me down, I wrote three rules on a sticky note and put it on my monitor:

1. Never spend money on something available free. Professor Messer exists. Use him.
2. Only buy things on sale. Udemy runs sales constantly. Amazon has used textbooks. Patience saves money.
3. The exam fee is the only non-negotiable expense. Everything else is optional.

These rules have saved me from at least four impulse purchases. I nearly bought a $200 cybersecurity book bundle because a Reddit thread made it sound essential. Checked the topics against the free exam objectives PDF — 90% overlap. Closed the tab.

My Actual Spending So Far

Let me be fully transparent about every dollar I have spent on this career change:

Fifty-nine dollars. That is less than a single DoorDash shift. And I have everything I need to study for my first certification.

The Exam Fee Strategy

The CompTIA A+ requires two exams: Core 1 and Core 2. Each costs around $400 AUD. That is $800 total, which is a real chunk of money on a delivery driver salary.

My plan:

• Save $50/week in a separate account labelled “Cert Fund”
• Target Core 1 exam in 3 months — that is $600 saved, enough for the exam plus a buffer
• Core 2 three months later — same saving pattern

The key insight: you do not need the money upfront. You need it when you are ready to sit the exam, which is months away. That gives you time to save in small, manageable amounts.

What I Would Tell Past-Me

If I could go back to that panicked spreadsheet evening, I would say three things:

First, the internet has made cybersecurity education almost free. The content is out there. You do not need to pay for access to information — you need discipline to actually study it consistently.

Second, the real cost is time, not money. I spend 10 hours a week studying. That is 10 hours I am not driving, not earning. That opportunity cost is real and worth acknowledging. But it is an investment with a return that delivery driving cannot match.

Third, every single person in cybersecurity Reddit who seems like they spent thousands? Most of them started with free resources too. They just do not mention it because it is not as interesting as talking about their SANS training.

The Budget Page That Helped Me

I put together a full budget and cost planning guide based on my research. It covers certification costs, free resources, and different budget tiers for career changers. If money is the thing stopping you, read that page first.

The Bottom Line

You do not need money to start learning cybersecurity. You need a laptop, an internet connection, and the willingness to study consistently. The expensive parts — exam fees, premium tools, advanced training — come later, when you have had time to save for them and you know this is the right path.

The spreadsheet is still open on my desktop. I update it every time I spend a dollar on this career change. So far, it is the least expensive decision I have ever made — and potentially the most valuable.

For more on planning your transition, check out my career roadmap and timeline expectations.

Individual results vary based on location, experience, market conditions, and effort invested. Costs are approximate and based on Australian pricing as of early 2026.