I have written on this topic many times over the years. I started photography because of macro images I saw on a forum, but soon realized that the Minimum Focusing Distance of the basic kit lens I had wasn't going to cut it. I did what any new photographer did and I checked what gear the photographers I admired were using, but they were employing some specialist lenses worth more than my car at the time.
Eventually, I thought I would try a cheap macro filter and I was stunned at the quality. Although you can never recreate all of the images a specialist macro lens can make, you might be surprised at how good of a standard the results can be.
Photography, while highly accessible these days, does still have some financial barriers for certain genres and pursuits, but never rule out the work-arounds. Just looking at macro, these days you have macro filters, reverse lens rings, and even the macro lenses designed for phones can lead to pretty great images.
