I have to say, probably the best alternative cheap video editor right now is DaVinci resolve, but I use Adobe premiere pro.
Here's my video editing story. When I was 6 years old, I used Windows movie Maker. Then when I turned 8 I used a copy of my dad's Adobe premiere CS2. It was pretty outdated so my dad bought the all new PowerDirector version 8. (Yes that was a few years ago...) I used PowerDirector 8, 12, and 14, and then I started using DaVinci resolve. This was a great path for me to take, learning most of my editing skills in PowerDirector, learning a slightly more professional software, DaVinci resolve, and then moving on to Adobe premiere pro CC 2018. And the entire suite of all the other apps which I use quite a bit. I just haven't found any other apps that suit my needs, and I have to use Adobe for business now anyway.