While taking advantage of softwareoutlet.com's 24-hour specials on Nero 6.0 Suite for $10, I noticed a true cheap deal. They've got CorelDraw 7 for $14.99. They've also got CorelDraw 8 (which is the one I use) for $29.95, which is also quite good. Looking at an old review of CorelDraw 7, looks like it comes with the same stuff as CorelDraw 8, albeit in earlier versions. That means you get Corel PhotoPaint (a Photoshop-ish bitmap editing program), CorelDream (a Corel-branded version of the nice 3D program Ray Dream Designer), CorelTexture (a tool to make tile-able textures), and Corel OCR-Trace (a fair bitmap tracer and excellent OCR program).

On top of that, use the coupon code TROUBLE for 20% off your order. That'd bring the total price to $17.98 shipped to your door, or $29.95 for version 8.

If you're looking for some graphics software and you don't wanna spend a lot, you'll be hard-pressed to find a dollar-per-feature ratio better than that.

Also, if you're working with Macromedia Flash, I'd recommend you get yourself a high-end vector editing program. Flash has a fair one built in, but you'll have an easier time doing your graphics in something like CorelDraw, Illustrator, or Freehand, and pasting it in.