Blogger vs Self-hosted WordPress... which should i go for?

Not sure what got into me today but i painstakingly copied every single one of my livejournal posts to blogger. Export to XML and Blogger import didn't work and i really didn't wanna abandon those posts... already feeling very *ouch* about the photos that are now forever gone. It makes me wonder if google would ever decide to remove blogspot or picasa or google photos for that matter.

My original intention of blogging was to keep my memories (knowing how forgetful i am) and its always fun coming back to the old posts not remembering many bits of those memories until i read about them. but now that there are photos gone forever... potentially i would be losing these memories as well...

I read about moving to self-hosted WordPress for this precise reason. However, self-hosted means i need to start paying for hosting services and my own domain name. There are pros and cons to weigh... I'm still not ready to start paying for blogging.. plus i have to painstakingly migrate all the photos and update the links in the posts. That's a really scary thought.

Anyone gone through this and can give some good advice? Does this really have to be such a painful and expensive exercise? I'm even thinking about going offline, but my dead external hdd is also making me think twice about this. Seems cloud is the way to go if i wanted my memories at least for my lifetime...