Several people have talked about making this with brown sugar instead of maple syrup. Can you describe how to do that? Frankly can't afford that...

My mother used to do that, when I was a child. Sometimes, she would also use half dark or amber maple syrup and half brown sugar syrup, so as to save some money and still get that awesome maple taste. She would boil 2 cups brown sugar with 2 cups water, to form a syrup.

My advice would be to turn the brown sugar into a simple syrup by combining it with water and bringing it to a boil. A one to one ratio should work, and I think you'll need to use 10 to 12 ounces of each to get 2 cups.