Don't let the credit crunch get you down! You can save a fortune (legally) on your software and use the money you save for something more useful or exciting.

I've noticed that I rarely use 100% of the functions of the very expensive software I usually buy. So now I'm saving money buying software that has the 80% functionality that I actually use. And I'm saving a fortune! Here's how you can save over £1,000 on software (Yes, legally!).

First, don't bother with the full editions of the software, but buy the "student" or limited edition instead.

If you're looking for an office suite, then take Microsoft Office, for example, compare the full edition with the home and student edition:

• Office 2008 for Mac £349.95
• Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition £99.95

That's a saving of £250 and you'll hardly notice the difference. Both editions have Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage. The full edition has some extras including Exchange Server support, which most of us don't need.

If you're looking for a page design package, then check out QuarkXPress

• QuarkXPress Passport 7 £1,069.00
• QuarkXPress Passport 7 Student Edition £99.95

That's a saving of £969.05! Unless you're a professional designer, you won't need the expensive extras.

I you want to manipulate images, then you could go for Adobe Photoshop. But don't bother with the full version - go for the Elements version and save yourself £589.05

• Adobe Photoshop CS3 £649.00
• Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 £59.95

So far we've saved £1,808.

But if you really want to save big money - you don't need to bother with Microsoft, Quark or Adobe at all. Apple's iWorks does 80% of everything you'd ever want to do with Microsoft Office AND QuarkXPress put together. It includes the excellent Pages application which gives you great word processing and page layout. You'll get Numbers to replace Excel and Keynote which is much better than Powerpoint for presentations.

You can buy iWorks for just £55.00 for a single user of £69.00 for your whole family of 5. That's just £13.50 each!

AND you don't need Entourage – Apple's Mail comes free and is an excellent email package and the free iCal is a brilliant calender, diary and organizer.

If you want to replace Photoshop, you'll find Apple's iPhoto and Preview, which come free with every Mac will do perhaps 60% of what you would ever want - crop your image, change size, adjust colours, rotate and flip and save in various formats. If you want to do more than that - try Pixelmator (for Mac only) for just for just £31.81

So in summary, the total cost of going for the full software would be £2,067.95. The Apple an Pixelmator alternative costs just £101.80.

That's a total saving of £1,966.15!

Hold on, I hear you say, "I've got a PC and can't run all this Mac stuff!" OK, well you can afford to scrap your old PC and buy a beautiful iMac from £680 to run this software and you'll still save £1,286!

If you have any other tips of saving on software, let me (and the world) know!

All prices are quoted from the UK Apple Store on 22 May 2008.