There's a lot of specialty tools you need when working on bikes. Suck it up and buy the tools like the rest of us did. You'll save money in the end and learn the satisfaction of doing it yourself.
And bad on you for thinking that the LBS owner is a prick. He's trying to make a living and feed his family, not run a Coop bike shop. Not to mention the number of times I've heard of my own LBS guy "lending" a tool to even a regular customer only to get it back broken in some way.