I usually only take the cable out of the switch housing and rig it to something so it is straight up and down. I use the poor mans cable lube method. Basically it's a sandwich baggie and I poke a hole in one end and rubber band the bag around where the cable goes into the bag so it doesn't leak. Then fill the baggie with a decent amount of lube and let gravity do it's work. You could just buy a cable luber but then again you said you were trying to save money

Maybe some pictures would be nice to give a better idea.