Ask YC: Microsoft Software Licensing for consulting?

I've been consulting for a few years and always used the company's licenses for work purposes.

Now I'm on my own and need legit licenses for VS.NET and SQL Server.

Basically I'm finding I either have got MSDN ($1,200) or Empower ($375/year for 2 years). Technet is eval only and Action Pack doesn't have VS.NET.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? I think I'm going to go with the Empower for a couple years and then hopefully one of my side projects will have taken off so I won't have to sweat the $$$ :)

PS: and for those "VIM FTW" or whatever, please don't bother, I dual boot like the rest of you, but Uncle Bill pays the bills really well while I work on other stuff.