Lying about the true costs was how japanese animation (anime) got started - Osamu Tezuka flat out lied about how it all costs as his investors would never give him money for the real cost. That cost then kinda got normalized and expected and to this day animators in Japan are not paid very well considering the high costs of living, especially given that they usually have to work in the very expensive city center. Yet manny still do it out of passion.