I'm teaching myself guitar. I'm not to fond of taking lessons. If you want to save money and teach yourself, I would become a high bandwith member. It's a lot cheaper than taking lessons, you can do it whenever you want, as much as you want, and you go at your own pace. Also, you can think of it as taking lessons, but you have a ton of teachers and other people to help you out.
About the barre chords, just keep practicing them. I was going through the same kind of thing you were. It just takes time. Go here for some lessons from the great Dr. Simon.