Go on eBay and look for MS Office, can probably get Office 2000 Standard Edition full version (don't get tricked to buying an upgrade version), maybe a Student edition, for $60 if you are patient.
Alternatively, download OpenOffice which is an open-source and free suite, does almost everything that MS Office does (unless you are a serious "power user" or have some very specific needs) and will open and edit .doc files just fine.
www.openoffice.org
While you are at it, download Firefox (browser) and Thunderbird (email) and try them out, replace Internet Explorer and Outlook, I like them a lot.