Store & Compress Old Workbook Versions

I'm looking for is ComplyXL and that costs $300 to buy. So, as a poor grad student, I'm looking for an alternative solution - either a freeware program or a hassle-free VBA code.

So here's what I need the code or program to do: When I ask excel to open a pre-existing file, I'd like it to automatically rename (& compress?) the last used version of the file & save that to a filename-specific archive somewhere (hidden?), before opening the file as requested. Alternatively, I suppose that a mirror copy of each 'just used' file could be created & saved to an archive folder whenever the used file is saved & closed.

--Note: to avoid making copies of EVERY workbook I ever use, I suppose there should also be a button in the toolbar or a file-associated setting that lets me identify which files I want this task to apply to...

Basically I'm looking to have excel automatically save versions of certain key files (like Word's 'Versioning' feature) without having to remember to 'Save As', without the versions taking up much space, and without having to store the older file versions in the same place as the most recent one.

And yes, I know that a similar problem has already been posted & solved here, but they didn't include a way to choose which files used versioning nor (if it's possible) a way to compress the archived versions to save space (maybe by adding it into a WinRAR archive somewhere?).