Outfit Your Home Office for Under $1,000

Before taking the dive into self-employment, you're going to need some pony-up dough to outfit your home office. Fortunately, for a capital outlay of under a grand, you can get everything you need to turn that breakfast nook into a respectable workspace (and tax write-off). We burned down the industrial park and smoked out the best values to get you to the giddyap.

1 Aerobie AeroPress

Even if your neighborhood Starbucks hasn't gone out of business (yet), the era of the daily $3 latte is over. This pump-action pressure system produces steroid-strength espresso with delightful crema and comes clean with a single wipe.

$30

2 Dell 1909W

You have to stare at a screen all day, so make it pretty. This 19-inch LCD takes in panoramas, rotates 90 degrees to view the tallest document tree in your forest of data, and sports a freelance-friendly price.

$169

3 Ikea Dave Laptop Table

A massive bargain. The top angles for laptops or monitors, and it supports almost 20 pounds. Best yet, total setup time from box open to feet up: 6 minutes, 35 seconds. Top that, Bob Villa.

$30

4 Logitech QuickCam Communicate MP

The MP holds steady on almost any surface and tracks your face during virtual meetings to keep you in the shot. It also captures audio like a champ, picking up more sighs than The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

$50

5 Aerolatte

Pop your moo juice into the microwave for a few seconds and then hit it with this battery-powered frother. The foam, richer than you'll be for the foreseeable future, beats chain-store baristas hands down.

$20

6 Asus Eee Box B202

The book-sized Eee Box is no gaming rig, lacks a CD drive, and has weak Wi-Fi. But it handles cloud apps, the Web, and email like a true nerd. It even comes loaded with Star Office, so you won't have to steal that other software suite.

$300

7 Canon Pixma MX860

When it comes time to print, scan, and fax back those contracts by midnight, you'll be glad to have this all-in-one in your corner. It whips out vivid photos like a desktop Murakami but can stay out of site thanks to Wi-Fi hookups.

$200

8 BlackBerry Pearl Flip

RIM's entry-level flip-Berry lets you call five friends free, check email, and cruise the Web while keeping your calendar and enemy list as close as your nearest pocket. Punching out manifestos on the predictive keypad takes practice, though.

$50 with two-year contract

9 Ziszor Shredder

Living la vida 1099 means your social security number will be floating around like plastic in the Pacific. Fight the flotsam with this handheld portable shredder. It'll choke on more than two or three folded sheets, but it beats slicing with scissors.

$30

Price: $879

---