Instead of learning to do taxes by yourself, paying cheap software, paying expensive professionals, you could pay yourself and be trained in tax prep or accounting, at a basic level.
Then you could do it yourself?
Maybe doing your own taxes is actually okay. Do accountants do their own taxes?
Or maybe it is bad, like a lawyer trying to defend his or herself in court.
But it could be beneficial in the sense of having training and being able to be a better advocate for yourself if you do go with the free or paid options.
Seems like if you really wanted to do this, you could apprentice with a local tax prep person, that way you could see a lot of what is going on.
Or you could work in the field as extra labor for a bit.