Definitely buy AS. It is fantastic, especially for the price. I have used it since it's Moho days and it is consistently an excellent product. Well worth it's comparatively cheap price tag.
The only thing that comes close for the the price is Animation Master, but that is for 3D work...and they have an excellent deal going on right now...$49 US gets you a years subscription to the full download of the software. It is like the 3D equivalent of Anime Studio. The bone system is almost as easy to use as well.
http://www.hash.com
If you want to do credit card purchases without using your regular card, get a preloaded Mastercard or Visa. They don't use credit, so they are safer than regular cards for online purchases because they only ever have what money you load onto them...like a debit card. load what you want to spend and go.
Won't show up on your regular card bill either, keeping your wife out of the loop.
Not that I am advocating keeping secrets from your wife...
...of course that only works if you don't actually require the credit from your regular card to begin with.