You're kind of out of luck when it comes to free software. Well, it depends on what you're using it for I suppose. For simple trimming and stuff I found a free setup that works well, but it's very tedious if your computer isn't built for a bunch of rendering. There are cheap options though. In the sub-100 range there's Pinnacle Studio which I hear is somewhat decent, and both Adobe and Sony offer stripped down, more essential versions of Premiere and Vegas respectively.