When funds are tight, I have found thrift stores, yard sales, etc. may have pieces of material. Also, a quilt guild generally has scraps that members bring in, anyway mine does and I have gotten lots of good pieces there. Of course, I am a scrap quilter. I also belong to another quilt group where people drop off material they no longer want or from an estate and I have collected a lot from that. So look around, there are lots of ways to collect fabric inexpensively.