As an artist we need to create to live, there is no other way. Creation costs money, be it paints or pencils or even the paper to write a poem on.

I have bought pre streched canvases for years and because of that I had to calculate that into my price when I sell the piece. A while ago I started looking at a cheaper way to do this, I wanted bigger pieces and odd ball shapes, like triangles, or sizes to fit in a nook somewhere.

At my hardware store, I get my paints there, I spotted a canvas dropcloth for 9 dollars, its 6 by 9 feet and kind of rough. I bought that and 7 2 by 1's as well which where 8 feet long.
That and some screws i had made me 4 nice large canvases, the largest being 3 by 3 feet.

Just Gesso the end result and sand it down a bit to get the roughness down and there just fine!, for 16 dollars I got 4 large canvases, that and paints from the mis matched isle, you can be a very productive artist and not be broke!