Hi randomblink

I do a lot of GIS in my job, and grew up east of you in Sallisaw, OK. Yes, the ESRI pricing puts it well out of reach for a lot of us. I have it at work, but at home I rely on other less expensive tools. I'm on a Mac at home, so I don't know if these would interest you, but some I use are:

Cartographica (MacGIS.com) A bit pricey, but a lot less than ArcMap.
Ortelius (MapDiva.com) Like Adobe Illlustrator, but focused on map design.
NaturalSceneDesigner (naturalgfx.com) Really cool scene renderings.

But honestly, I do cartoon maps, so most of what I do is hand drawn.