I do not have a degree, I'm a self-taught programmer/ web developer. I started in a position similar to yours, doing QA for peanuts. I came home every night and

I do not have a degree, I'm a self-taught programmer/ web developer. I started in a position similar to yours, doing QA for peanuts. I came home every night and built side projects until I was comfortable enough to start landing side work for my own clients. Now I'm building web apps for a few more peanuts, but life is better. I've worked a few web dev jobs and I'm getting a lot of good responses when I send out resumes as well. It's a difficult road, so I won't sugar coat it. But I believe you can make it if you keep grinding long enough. I'm not exceptionally smart but I do think I have grit. It took me five years of coding every night to get somewhere with it. Good luck to you.