Getting Tools on the cheap

Seeing as how I can't even afford Adobe Macromedia Basic Flash 8 ( 30-day free trial, then pay $399.00 and activate product over Internet, forget it!), I'm buying a copy of Macromedia Flash 5 later today for thirty smackeroos from some guy in Lewisville. If it was good enough for 2002 it should be good enough for 2006. I just trying to make a funny animated cartoon for fun not steal Pixar's cheese.
I could never figure out why tools such as Flash, Office, etcetera should be so expensive and cost prohibitive. I suppose they don't want that many people being creative.