Depending on how "advanced" your workbooks are, you may be able to use
OpenOffice:

http://www.openoffice.org, a 60-104 meg download or a CD

(It's a free download.)

It can read and write excel files--but it's not excel. There may somethings
that are lost (maybe not, too).

Julie S. wrote:

I need to be able to work with Excel from my home computer . I will mostly
be doing scheduling, changing spreadsheets that are emailed to me, and
probably no more. Which download should I get? Where do I get it and how
much will/should it cost?
My needs are simple.
Julie

--

Dave Peterson