[ProtectOurFreedom]

I still use Word and Excel. Unfortunately, their subscription model now costs me $130/year for a family plan. Ugh. You used to own it and upgrade ever five years or so. This is a LOT more expensive now.

[T.B. Yoits]

If you can use Microsoft Office Home Edition, it's available as a standalone purchase from Microsoft for $149.99.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/office-home-2024/CFQ7TTC0PQVJ

[House Atreides]

“I still use Word and Excel. Unfortunately, their subscription model now costs me $130/year for a family plan. Ugh. You used to own it and upgrade ever five years or so. This is a LOT more expensive now.”
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On principle I refuse to pay for the subscriptions. I transitioned to using the Apple counterparts. I particularly loved and was very proficient in Excel and was knowledgeable about numerous available Excel “hacks”. It took some time and effort to develop a corresponding level of proficiency in Apple Numbers. But developing those new skills was well worth the effort IMHO.

[PastorBooks]

You said, “I still use Word and Excel. Unfortunately, their subscription model now costs me $130/year for a family plan.”

OpenOffice and LibreOffice can both work with Microsoft Word and Excel documents and spreadsheets. They are open source and free.

They may have trouble if you are using something fancy like Excel macros. For most files they can read, edit and save just like Word or Excel.

LibreOffice: https://www.libreoffice.org/

OpenOffice: https://www.openoffice.org/

Libreoffice is a “fork” of the older OpenOffice. I’m not sure which one is considered the better one these days.

[Svartalfiar]

You can find older versions of office on Groupon for the price they should be at, $20-40. Much better option, especially if all you need is word/excel/ppt/basic ones for home use!

https://www.groupon.com/deals/license-tom-llc-2-1