Couldn't you just put some of the less important stuff on an external? Perhaps even get a cheap case and use the current 500GB HDD as an external.

That's what I would do. Of course I don't know what's taking up space on your HDD so it might not be practical for you. I have plenty of stuff though that would work just fine on an external drive if I needed to downsize the internal to get SSD.

Also...don't get too overworked about it. The price of SSD storage has been dropping steadily over the past few months and the trend will likely continue just as happens with all technology (and everything else)as the newness wears off and supply catches up to demand. A 500GB SSD will probably become quite affordable over the next several months. Eventually SSD space price will probably be on par with HDD space prices now.

Or maybe something even better and cheaper will hit the market...who knows what's right around the corner these days? Technology is increasing so quickly it makes my head spin. I used to keep up on the latest tech but in the last year or 2 it's all coming so fast that it makes my tired old brain hurt.

I remember when new technology was brought to market about once every decade. Then it came in about 5 year marks which soon led to bi-annual revolutions and then yearly. Now it all advances so fast and the next big thing is old news before it even becomes available to the general public. What was the future just a couple of months ago is now the recent past....it's mind-blowing!

It's really funny when I think about how nothing ever changed or improved all through my childhood and into my teen years and on into my early adult years. Suddenly the late 90s hit, I turned 30 and now we're all living in the sci-fi movies of my youth. And this sci-fi future is rapidly turning into a something that even the movie writers could never have dreamed.