I actually thought this wasn't bad. What it lacked in visuals, it made up for in story, sound design, and voice acting. Everyone has to start somewhere. If you have the time, I'd recommend checking out a few of these free programs that will make it easier to animate:

Image creation software:
-Paint.net (easy to use, kinda like MS Paint updated, good for beginners)
-Krita (image creation more streamlined, more difficult to learn than paint.net but better results)
-Gimp (similar to photoshop, a bit difficult to learn at first but much better results)

Animation software:
-Synfig (similar to flash, simple but crashes a lot)
-Papagayo (lip syncing program for use with Synfig, can be used with other programs but process is much more difficult)
-OpenToonz (more complicated, instructions in Japanese but no crashes and once you learn how to use it you have so much control)
-Blender (mainly 3D animation, but new version will be supporting 2D animation soon and can be used as a video editor)

Sound design:
-Audacity (good for recording/editing voices - almost everyone uses it, even the pros)
-LMMS (can create your own music, some sound effects included)
-Many other music creation tools exist, those are the ones I use but if you google "free music creator" you can see all the options.
-incompetech.com for free music
-freesound.org for free sound effects

Video editing software:
-Default Apple/Windows video editor (very simple but extremely limited)
-VSDC Free video editor (relatively simple but gives you much more control, probably the best option to start out on after the default software; if you just want to add sound to images then this is for you)
-Blender (as mentioned above, though if you only intend to use it for video editing and nothing else it is a bit complicated and I'd recommend something else)
-Hitfilm express (somewhat similar to photoshop, a bit more complicated than other options but once you learn it you have much more control, plus it comes with a lot of built in effects)

Anyway there's a lot of free options out there, don't get caught up in trying to learn everything all at once; that's just an abbreviated list of my personal favorites. If you only have time to look at one thing from this list, then I'd recommend looking at OpenToonz. You need to watch YouTube videos to understand it but once you do, animating becomes much easier and looks much better. You can use it to create your own images, loop them, and add 2D special effects, like explosions, rain, dust clouds, and more.

For this series, I'd probably just continue doing whatever you're doing, then try to learn some of the other programs in you free time and start a different series with them. It's far too easy to get caught up in learning different programs and never finishing your series. But, if you're serious about learning to animate (without having to invest the money in it), then do take the time to look them over someday.