In this day and age of Alchemy, there is no reason to spend half a fortune leveling up. =/
If you follow Platonix's
[Nothin' But Cache] guide, you'll be able to level up using only Philosopher's Cache components, and with how many people throw away their Caches or sell them for dirt cheap, you should be able to hit level 10 with minimal costs.
As for "worth it", that all depends on what you want out of Alchemy. If you want to get max level for the achievements and glory, yes it's definitely worth it! If nothing else, Alchemy is another reason to stay in Gaia for just a bit longer.
If you want to make gold and profit from Alchemy, most likely not worth it. You can profit, but it requires a lot of research and planning. And this next part is going to sound mean, but if you can't put in the time to find out how to level without spending a lot of gold, then you won't be able to put in the time to profit from Alchemy. It requires hours of watching MP for which crafted items are desirable and millions, if not billions, of gold to invest in crafting components.