Help Choosing Programs

I'm thinking of buying Audition and possibly Sony Vegas because right now all I'm using is Audacity and Windows Movie Maker. I don't enjoy mixing or animating particularly, but I figure it's easier to do it myself than try to find someone else. Can anyone please tell me what programs you use and whether or not you like them? I know WMM is essentially useless for what I'm trying to do (since I'd basically have to resort to frame-by-frame animation for everything), but I'm wondering if I should stick to Audacity since it's worked for me so far.

I really can't help you suggesting mixing programs, but for animation I would definitely pick Adobe After Effects. It's kinda heavy and all, but it's the best animating program I've worked with so far. It might seem a bit complicated at first, but it's kinda easy once you get used to it!

I've heard Reaper is a pretty good choice. I wouldn't suggest buying Audition off from the start though since it's pretty expensive. Reaper is much cheaper ($60 for individual use) and they even give you a sixty-day trial for free with all the stuff the paid version has.

There was another mixing program that I was looking at but I can't remember the name now >_< if I can find it again, I'll post it here, too. That one was ~$50.

I use and recommend Adobe AUdition CS5.5 because I use it and it accomplishes everything I need. If you're experienced with Audacity then Audition should come easily. It's still a pretty steep learning curve (what is Mastering ) but there are a lot of guides out there on the web.

I do recommend After Effects for animation like mimiru did (though I agree it's expensive and can be a bit complicated to starters). Otherwise Vegas would be a decent choice.

Thank you to everybody for the recommendations! I think I will try Reaper and consider getting After Effects as well.