In my opinion, cutting investment in tools is downgrading your own value. If a $500 tool can save you 50 hours and you do not buy it, you are, in effect, saying "I am not worth $10 per hour".
I have, by client/employer demand developed some projects without the benefit of ICE. I have yet to see that saving any money.
I have worked with people that bragged about their ability to get by without tools and, invariably, found that they took longer for each process than people with tools.
Yes, you can make a 'breakpoint' by e.g. inserting code that illuminates a LED on P1.6 when a certain point is passed. Let us analyze the two scenarii. With ICE, you doubleclick on say 10 lines and run. W/o ICE you insert an instruction at your debug spot, run the assembler, erase the flash, doenload and run. Then you find out that the location was not exactly the sewwt spot and you repeat till you find it.
I do not claim that it is impossible or even overly difficult to get by without ICE, it just is not cost effective

May Santa bring you ICE and not a lump of coal.

Erik Malund