Broad generalities from someone who doesn't reload but who has looked into it as a possible future hobby:
Semi-expensive for initial setup. You need to buy some stuff.
You need a work area with correct precautions (anti-static, etc).
You need to spend time educating yourself.
If you care at all about consistency/accuracy, you need to slow down (at first) and document the heck out of your process.
You need to research materials to figure out what is suitable, and then find a supplier that will be around for a long time since any time you change something, the bullets won't go out the bang stick in quite the same way.
You need to adjust your materials and build process to match your desired outcome. If you want to hand load to save money, you need to buy in bulk and don't get wrapped up around buying the latest and greatest materials. Get cheaper bullets and other parts that give you the desired consistency without making it all cost more than just buying boxed ammo.
On the other hand if you are hand loading for accuracy, you need to both do your research, and also actually build some ammo and go try them out to figure out what works best in your gun, then do it that exact same way until you intentionally change something to get a different result. Consistent supply can be an issue so don't get some weird premium ammo from a company that will quit making it in a year or two.
I know a guy at work who hand loads all his pistol ammo, using recycled lead and brass. He takes a trip to various open ranges with a shovel, bucket, and a couple of sizes of sorting mesh to rough sort the brass while he's out there. He'll shovel the brass (and dirt and cigarette butts, etc) onto each kind of mesh over the bucket, and in an hour or two he can bring back a few buckets full of whatever brass he's out looking for, assuming the place hasn't already been picked clean that week by recyclers. He has a friend who works in a tire store, so he gets pretty much all the free used tire weight lead he wants so he only has to buy any alloying metals and flux to get it to separate properly. He buys lube, and he had to invest in some decent quality tools. After the first few hundred bullets to break in the molds, he can crank out a couple hundred nearly pure lead bullets in an evening, including lube and prepping to be pressed into the casing. Cleaning/sorting brass takes some time since he has to size each casing by hand, but he has a tumbler to clean them and his measuring gadget is partially automated. He has various tools to make this all fairly easy and consistent, even though it remains labor intensive.
But he can crank out several hundred rounds in just a few1-2 hour evening sessions, for the cost of powder, primers, cleaning supplies for cleaning the brass, and bullet lube. The lead and casings are free except for his time and gas spent to go get itm so he's saving a TON of money since he likes to shoot a lot. But they're certainly not specialty bullets, just a reasonably consistent solid lead slug with either a hint of some alloy to help avoid fouling, or some sort of surface treatment (I can't remember what he does exactly). When he gets on a roll he'll crank out hundreds of rounds at a time. He doesn't have kids so he can set this stuff up anywhere in his apartment/house and not worry about the kids getting into it, but I imagine he had to do something about ventilation when he melts down the lead.
Someone hand loading for accuracy or competition will probably have a significantly different approach to all of that.
