You can try something like Wix. If you are reasonably tech-savvy you can probably figure it out.

That said, if you choose the right developer it is money well spent. Many of them will have both template and custom options. Templates are significantly cheaper because you are changing colors and content, not building from the ground up. I have worked with vendors who do all-in packages for like $2500, which includes a certain number of pages, X number rounds of changes, etc. Custom sites are much pricier because they are coded just for you. Cheapest custom site I ever quoted was like $10k, and that was for a relatively simple website without many pages or bells and whistles.

Keep in mind even if you build it yourself you will need to pay for hosting your site somewhere. That will run you roughly $100/year depending on the specifics of your site.

If you go with a developer, make sure you ask what is included in the maintenance package they are going to try to sell you. Maintenance packages usually run $50-$100 a month. Some are more. But what you want out of that is regular backups (like at least monthly) that can be restored if your site is compromised and also regular site scans and cleaning to ensure your site is secure and there are no issues like spam links that need to be removed or vulnerable holes in the back end that need to be patched. If something happens you also need to know the cost of rectifying it, the timeline for doing so and the method of billing (hourly?). Had a client dump their developer after their site was hacked and redirected to a porn site and the developer did nothing for a week. We hired someone else who handled it within 24 hours.