Looking for software that won’t break the bank?  Some free options to the expensive big boys?  So this is not my typical type of post but it is something to look at.  I have used some of these but not all of these,   I have looked for options to some of the big boys and found a few of these very helpful and I hope you do to.

Instead of MS Office, try LibreOffice or OpenOffice
Instead of Microsoft Publisher or Adobe InDesign, try Scribus
Instead of Microsoft Outlook try Mozilla’s Thunderbird use the Lightning extension to add calendar feature.
Instead of Intuit’s Quicken and QuickBooks Pro try AceMoney Lite or GnuCash
Instead of Adobe Photoshop try GIMP, Artweaver or MyPaint, Inkscape, or Blender.
For Video editors try Live Movie Maker
Instead of Internet Explorer try Chrome or Firefox
Instead of Windows Media Player try VLC
Instead of iTunes try DoubleTwist
Instead of Microsoft Project try ProjectLibre

Sometimes searching for Open Source software will help you find an alternative to what you are using