Is there a permaculture course that is say less than $300 that anyone recommend?

Ideally id also like to set up small perm gardens or food forest for regular houses. Food forest abundance is like $3000 Andrew Mollisons course is between $900-$1200 and its also associated with a University which i refuse to give any type of money to a university.

I've never really looked deeply into PDCs -- they seem pretty design focused, and I'd rather slap-dash some things together each year and replace the stuff that doesn't work. So I'm not really going to be helpful to your main point. However, I'm interested in the value aspect of what you're asking about. So, I wonder, what would such a course have to provide to you to feel like it was worth $1-3K? Continuing consultation? Longer learning? Getting to focus on *your* project instead of hypotheticals or the last thing the teacher did? Just curious. (Of course, none of that is helpful if you're in a financial position that simply prohibits that kind of expense...)

This doesn't directly solve your problem, @philip, but my wife and I taught a PDC for several years that was offered by our local resilience group and primarily funded by grants from the national lotteries board and our city council. The model allowed for subsidies and scholarships so that cost was not a barrier, and this meant we got a much broader cross section of the community in our students.

You might be able to get a benefactor in the form of a nonprofit or similar organisation in your area whose purposes include the things you would be able to do with your permaculture knowledge and skills. Some form of giving back, or a sort of apprenticeship, might be the way you explain it to them. Our council was happy to provide the funding because it fit their sustainable communities goals and we had many examples of our grads designing and implementing projects that had direct, tangible benefits to the permies.