Mesh....I'm trying to catch up on yesterday for Pete's sake. Geeeeeesh!
Ken- I share your feelings. I have always had GAS. Probably always will. I try to stay away from the deals area but it usually doesn't work very well. The one good thing about sales is there's always another one. If you miss this time, you'll have another chance. I have found that unless composing film tracks or orchestras a few decent soft synths can do well for some. All depends on what you want to do. There are equivalent offerings that sound pretty darned good for rock/pop/electronica/trance and that kind of thing. Have you looked into AIR?
Could Kontakt free temporarily fill the gaps? Mebee? Sorry, just tryin' to be helpful.