He could mean that he only has a 3rd class medical? So he couldn't exercise commercial privileges on his pilot certificate... But anyway, just to echo what some others have said, if you can't scrape together the money for your CFI, with your low total time you are at least going to need a single-engine commercial in order to build time. Don't worry about instrument currency at this point, I'd worry about getting that single-engine commercial. It can be done pretty cheap. I'm not sure what area your in, but most bigger cities still utilize a local operator to provide Traffic Watch services. See about hopping in the airplane with them to build some recent experience. Beg, borrow, and steal every hour you can get. If you want it bad enough, you will find a way.