trs++ to you on this answer. I was heading down a long and sloppy road with my attempt.I'm sure that this was probably someone's homework at some point :-) If only I could be so lucky as to have a good Perl course availible. Otherwise I learn from books, at my job, and from silly practices like this.(and of couse from staying tuned to perlmonks)

One Question, This looked like a possible typo, but I haven't tried to use your code yet.

'Jack Smith'      => 0     # same amount as his wife
[download]

Should that be a 1?
japhy I'm truly impressed. ...and a little frightened.