Well, I'm a college student who's always lived on, shall we say, a shoestring budget. My half of the income is loans and grants.

That said, I made it up to 14 snakes one at a time. I didn't start out wanting to breed...I just loved snakes and wanted one or two as pets. But once I saw the Albino and the Bumblebee BPs and the Lav/Ghost and Opal corn snakes... well it took off from there. Also, my BF likes the idea of getting some money back from sale of offspring to go toward their upkeep. In other words, I plan to breed snakes for two main reasons:
1) to get the morphs I adore but could never afford to buy straight out.
2) to make this beloved hobby of mine self-sufficient.

If ever I make enough money to go above and beyond care costs...that will be a happy bonus since I do not intend to do this as a business.

My breeding group actually started with the pastel male I rescued/was given. Once I had him, I started thinking about Bees and getting a spider female. First, though, I had a wonderful opportunity to get a 100% het Albino girl for quite a low price and ended up with her and then her mate before the spider. When I finally got my cute little spider girl, I was presented with the chance to pick up a lovely little female pastel from a friend.
So, now I have the means to make Albinos, Bees, and Super Pastels! Not to mention a pair of normals (one that I was given) that will be my "test run" of breeding that will make some really pretty babies to sell cheap or give away to deserving new herp fans!

Oh, and as for caging - with my low income and love of making things, it's always been easier for me to make my own enclosures. I already have the cage system for my corns, and rack(soon to be 2) for the adult BPs. Someday I intend to have a display system for the BPs as well.