AssetBundle Alternative?

I don't want to pay 1200 bucks when Im just starting this as a hobby. Is there any way to store assets locally rather than streaming them with AssetBundles? Support has told me it's possible, but I don't see how. If this is true like Im told can someone give me an answer on alternatives?

The only other way to load assets at runtime is to use resource folders. Then you need to add all assets at compile time, but you can avoid loading them at runtime if you don't need them.