Get off your assets

C'mon get moving. The biggest money saving feature you have going for you is the free labor. You have as much of that as you are willing to invest so spend it wisely. Put in the research to find out as much as you can about your project and the best materials to use. Familiarize yourself so you aren't learning on the fly and wasting valuable materials. It's worth the extra time to spend twice as long doing it right once instead of doing it twice cause you couldn't be bothered to do the research. There are far too many resources online for you to need to ask your neighbor the orthodontist how to install a brick patio.