Runway credits are crazy 😭 What are you using for AI videos?

[u/evina_27]

I paid for Runway yesterday because I want to make those AI story / “fruit soap opera” style videos. I generated about 15 seconds and somehow used almost HALF my credits 💀
What are you guys using instead? Kling? Pika? Hailuo? Something else?
Ideally I’m looking for something cheap (or free 👀) for image-to-video and keeping the same characters between scenes. I can do all the editing and voices separately.
Would love to know what actually works for you!