My Mum was a single Mum and we couldn't afford games. My first programming books were for programming games. That started my programming career which from the age of 8 is still going 35 years later. It's amazing how far we've come since then.
Thinking back we had about 20-50 games for our Spectrum. I know I bought a few of the budget games for £2.99 from WH Smiths, or similar places, but most of the games we owned were copied on blank audio cassettes.
I'd estimate at least 80% of the games I "owned", and my friends played, were copied. Though I'm hazy on how they arrived. I know my dad would bring some home from the post-office where he worked, and I'd swap taped copies of some games with friends at school.
For me too, got one for my 10th birthday (and got it working again a couple of years ago). For me it was my father who "forced" me to read the Basic manual before I was allowed to use it by my self.
(Largely because the tape-player in our bundle didn't work, so instead I was "forced" to read the manual(s) instead..)