I did my taxes for 2017 but was unable to file because I couldn't afford the exorbitant fee to have it taken out of my refund. Now it's gone. How do I get my work back?

I ran into this problem one year in the past and was able to file later because the IRS doesn't charge late fees to get a refund and I have the money now to file, but this year, I don't see any way to get back into my last year's taxes.

Did you use Online TurboTax last year, and do you locate the account with the 2017 return? i..e, when you log in and go the section "Your Tax Returns & Documents", is there evidence of your 2017 return?   If there is no 2017 return at all in that account, then you likely have multiple accounts that we can help you troubleshoot to find the right one.

Or do you find the 2017 in that section, but when you try to download/print it, does it ask you to pay to access it?

And was the 2017 return completely finished and ready to file?  If so, you can use the PDF and print it out, sign, date, and mail it.   If you need to work on it any more, however, you would need to buy 2017 desktop software.

When I log in I get the wizard for this year, a link to tax home which reloads the same page, a link to file for extension for this year which I already did, a link to my Intuit account which shows no link to tax returns and documents, and a sign out button

When you get to the Tax Home scroll down.  Is there not a section "Your Tax Returns & Documents"?   If not, is there a link in the left menu column called "Previous Taxes?"

If you find no evidence of the 2017 return in that account, you can use the info I posted in the  Answer section below on how to find multiple accounts.

it was completely finished and ready to file, but the problem is there is no link to Your Tax Returns & Documents, tax home just reloads the wizard; there is no proper home and I don't know how to get there

"Your Tax Returns & Documents" is at the bottom of the Tax Home page.  See if you have the link "Previous Taxes" in the left column.   If not, you're likely in the wrong account.   Then see the info I left below.

If you prepared the 2017 return online and can't find it as I discussed above, then you likely have multiple accounts (User IDs) without realizing it and signed into the wrong one.  This is one of the more common questions in the forum.  

You can have up to 5 accounts that use the same email address for notification purposes.  A User ID may be an email address, but it doesn't have to be.  It might be only part of an email address, or it can be anything at all.

To get a list of your User IDs and recover account access, you can use the tool at the link below.  Try using your phone number first.   After that, if necessary, then run the tool on your email address(es) you can access.

NOTE: Before running the account recovery tool below, log out of all Intuit accounts including this user forum, or you might end up in a loop.  Then clear your browser Internet cache, close your browser, then reopen it, and go to the link below.  You may wish to copy this link so you can paste it into the new browser session.

https://myturbotax.intuit.com/account-recovery

If still no luck after running that on your phone number and email address(es) that you can access,  here's another method.
Go back to the tool again, but this time leave the data field blank, and choose the small blue link that says "Try something else", and it will look you up by SSN and other parameters.