Interested in Big 3 & CBE from abroad. Need help, alternatives

[Smai]

Hello everybody! I'm 23 years old and trying to figure out how to further my education. I moved to Germany from the US a year ago, and have no plans to return to the US any time soon. I've avoided post-secondary schooling because I didn't want to be crushed under debt and although my parents wouldn't finance my education/living expenses/etc, their incomes made applying for financial aid useless. Now that I'm approaching the age where fafsa finally doesn't care about my parents' finances, I've been trying to figure out how I can best go about getting a bachelor's degree in my current predicament.

I was so excited to discover the possibility of mostly testing out of a degree, until I looked up my nearest testing centers. It seems that there are some CLEP/DSST/ECE testing centers 'near' me, but my understanding is that they are only accessible to people with a US military ID, which, not being in/married to/working for the military, I don't have. Does that really mean my only CBE options are to take time off work to travel to a different country for these? And if saving time and money are the most important factors, are the Big 3 even a good deal without CBE anymore? Should I apply to stock shelves at the PX so I can access a testing center on base? Is there some alternative I'm overlooking that would make DL less time consuming and expensive for me, or do I just need to bite the bullet and start making travel plans, accept getting into debt and paying too much? I'm glad for anyone's advice or suggestions, but I really hope someone else in a situation like mine can share their experiences