It sounds very similar to the way I started out my bankroll on ipoker. The first 2 years were a long slow grind of earning money from the freerolls and rakeback, never taking any money out of the bankroll to allow it to grow. Before long I had 4K in my account and could play any game that I wanted. But that 2 years is a lot of work with very little tangible reward.

Good luck, keep growing it and you wont have to look back. And keep playing the freerolls to add to that bankroll