I wanted to run a full node so I used this marvelous brand new invention called "Google" and typed "Bitcoin full node" into it.
The very first result in the search was this page:
https://bitcoin.org/en/full-nodeI read it and in about 15 minutes I was running a full node on my laptop.
It does use up some bandwidth.
Currently I have: 33 connections to my node, 25 inbound and 8 outbound
In the last 24 hours it has received 2 GB and it has sent out about 15 GB, which is about normally what it does in a 24 hour period.
Yes, I wish I was getting paid to run it - but I am not. Just doing it for fun at this point.