I started when I was 34, for the same motivations that you describe. It become my profession and my hobby. I'm now 47 and I'm still enjoying the ride a lot.
What helped me the most from the basics to being a Django professional has been Two Scoops of Django. The best about this book is that is authoritatively opinionated about which are the best practices in the Django world. This really helps you not to get lost. See: https://www.twoscoopspress.com/products/two-scoops-of-django...
When I find myself stuck and my mind starts to loop around, I need to force myself to take a purposeless walk, around my office's block or little more. During the walk I stop thinking about the problem for a while and then resume from a new angle. It normally works very well.
It wouldn't have been smart either. What one should charge is what one can charge. And it's unrelated to what the cost of living is in a given country.
I'm obsessed with not throwing away things and really appreciate a cool project like this. But nonetheless, I would like to emphasize that recycling is no substitute for not producing and not consuming plastic, which is by far the best way to fight what is depicted in the Why? section!