You don't have to exclusively play new big-budget games with high spec requirements, an old laptop will play decades of old PC games as well as plenty of newer indies, or you can just go on eBay and buy someone's last-generation console along with all their controllers and games for the cost of a brand-new game or two!
Because who can afford a new gaming rig/system AND games to play on it?
I live in a developing country, I'm not either rich or poor and I have a decent gaming rig (i5-10400 and RX 6600)
For PC stuff you just need to know what to get and where would be the best place to get it (aka where is it cheaper) because here in Costa Rica (where I live) people will try to scam you into getting a 6600 XT for like $900 (US dollars, even though our currency is colones)
As for games you can either hop on the ship and sail or wait until the next major Steam sale. For games I'd recommend Steam but I feel MS Store/Xbox PC is fine as well
people will try to scam you into getting a 6600 XT for like $900
Try to search on every website that sells PC. Amazon, eBay, <I don't know??>, etc... They sell "gaming" PC for like 1000$ with a old CPU (like Intel 7/8000) and a 1660