EVE New Citizens Q&A

Please don't go mining in low / null sec systems until you know what you are doing.
You will lose more than you earn. There are enough people like me making sure that such is the case.

Your question basically comes down to 'how can I afford to learn PVP'.
You can start by doing lots of high sec activities flying different ships. Try hauling stuff. Scan down data sites. Do security missions with speed tank / buffer tank / active tank.
You will gain the knowledge and understanding of what each ship fitting can do and cannot do. You will understand what your 'future' victims will be like. All while earning some ISK and standing.

Oh, also a tip on 'affordable pvp' : Making ISK is one way. Spending less is another approach. Don't waste money on expensive stuff unless you are sure that you NEED that stuff in your fitting.

The best way to make ISK is trying to combine it with the things you like. For example I like to solo roam lowsec, while hunting for prey, loot and the rare good fight, I'm also killing clone soldiers for tags to sell for ~30m and run some combat exploration sites dropping faction stuff. Other I like to run relic sites in deep nullsec, although not that aggressive PvP, it's quite a lot of evasive PvP , for about 100m-150m ISK/h. But the most ISK recently I made with the holiday events and the skill extractor arbitrage. So it's good to watch out for opportunities of every kind...