So, I definitely could have just saved up to buy one of these, but there has been a fortunate turn which has created a situation where I have gotten a Raspberry Pi for free, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna turn that opportunity down.
Now, the way this happened is that my father-in-law was told about this project by my husband. An important thing to know here is that he and I are both very autistic, but in pretty different circles. My father-in-law (let's call him FIL) is entusiastically what I'd call "Math autistic", where he's very big into understanding systems, maathematics, and algorithms, whereas I'm what I'd call "artsy autistic" where I'm big into dissecting stories and artwork to attempt to understand them better. Obviously these are oversimplifications, like I also have bits of math I enjoy, and then there's this whole website and especially this Dreamcast project. This is important to the story, I promise.
So as fate would have it, one of FIL's friends had a bunch of Raspberry Pis that he gifted to FIL. I am almost certain that he had other uses for them, but he sent me a picture and told me he could give me one, which means I have what is technically the optional part of the kit sorted out. Still waiting on getting a Voice Modem. I have one in my sights, but money is... difficult at the moment, and FIL said he might have one buried somewhere, so I'll wait a bit for him to findout if he does as well.