The cheapest way to get Microsoft Office for your children’s homework

Someone recently asked me what the best option was to get Microsoft PowerPoint for her teenage son. Her son was working on a project for school and could only work on it at school since she didn't have the software at home.

My answer to her was boiled down into 3 options:

1. Purchase Microsoft PowerPoint Home and Student 2007 as a standalone product. The fact that her son is a student clearly qualifies her for the lower-priced home and student edition. As of the writing of this blog, Microsoft PowerPoint Home and Student 2007 is listed on Amazon.com for $111.99.
2. Purchase Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007. This office suite includes not only PowerPoint, but Word, Excel and OneNote as well. And given that the current price on Amazon.com is $113.99 I think most people would agree that it is worth the extra $2 to get the full office suite of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote over just the standalone PowerPoint application.
3. This option should probably be listed first since it is clearly the best option. The only reason I didn't list it first is that it may not be available for everyone reading this. Many schools have relationships with Microsoft (and other software vendors) to offer huge discounts on software. In some cases, I've seen schools offer the full Microsoft Office 2007 suite for only $5. That wasn't a typo. While your school may not be able to offer the Microsoft Office suite for as low as $5, it's definitely worth looking into what they can offer. Even a 50% discount can save you considerable amounts of cash.