And it's ironic that I would get downvoted for proposing this, but you can get a copy of Photoshop for free of the intertubes.
(I say, ironic, because in other threads I would get downvoted for saying that "freely sharing" commercial software should remain illegal and it doesn't matter if it's "only a copy" and "you wouldn't ever buy it anyway". Make up your minds people...).
I would absolutely recommend getting Photoshop Elements. It's got most of the features of Photoshop you'd ever use, and is much cheaper. You can get it bundled with Premiere Elements for $74 on Amazon right now, in fact. In fact, I bet you'll be surprised how powerful Photoshop Elements is; I could follow many detailed Photoshop tutorials in it with no problem at all.
The only problem you might hit with Photoshop Elements is that you can't group/ungroup layers in it by default. If you need to do that much, you might want to get Elements+ (http://simplephotoshop.com/elementsplus/) as well, which is an addon that unlocks some of the hidden features of Photoshop in Photoshop Elements.
No problem at all! You might want to try out a Photoshop Elements trial along with an Elements+ trial and make sure it fits the bill for what you need, but I bet it would.
And it's ironic that I would get downvoted for proposing this, but you can get a copy of Photoshop for free of the intertubes.
(I say, ironic, because in other threads I would get downvoted for saying that "freely sharing" commercial software should remain illegal and it doesn't matter if it's "only a copy" and "you wouldn't ever buy it anyway". Make up your minds people...).