It depends on how depressed you are and also evaluating whether it's clinical. A combination of medicine and extracurricular activities will get your life back on track!

I know you mentioned that you were looking for non$$ solutions but hear me out:

An overly simplified analogy to depression is like diabetes. Your body does not produce the right chemicals to process things. In the case of diabetes, it's insulin. For depression, there's some imbalance of serotonin or dopamine.

With diabetes, you must control your sugar intake via exercise, eating fewer carbs, fewer desserts, etc. With depression, a lot of same applies such as more exercise, meditation, journaling, etc.

If you had diabetes and all you did was limiting your sugar intake, then most doctors will say that's not enough. You must take insulin. Depression is similar. If it's clinical, behavioral therapy will definitely help, but you need to balance your chemicals.

If you need to chat more, let me know! I don't see a chat feature here, but we can find a way.