To pay or not to pay...that is the question.
I'm looking at my bookshelf right now and have tallied over $1,000 in books. Admittedly, they were acquired over the past 10 years and not all at once, but the point is that we all pay for education, in many forms.
There have been some valid critiques of pay to play systems, precisely because a good portion of the trading systems on the market have been developed with backtesting only, no live capital, and are therefore suspect IMO, or they are sink-or-swim packages (Here's the material, now go make money and don't bother me anymore.)
My largest critique with most of the systems out there is that there is little to no follow-on support or structured monitoring/supervision.
Now, I realize that most traders here are rugged individualists and would probably chafe at "supervision," but I've found that supervision and support are key to success.
If you don't want something so structured, look for an informal group to trade with. At least that way you'll have other people to speak with re: market outlook, setups, trades, position sizing, risk management, etc.