I think a good beginner project would be to write a simple checkbook system in T-SQL and then expand on it with thinks like allocation categories in the "memo" of a check, etc and maybe even expand it to a classic "double-entry" system and then grow it to handle more than one checking account and then to handle both checking and savings accounts. Well, at least that used to be a good place to start. I actually don't know very many people that actually know how to strike a balance in a checkbook anymore.