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Chris, while having perfect polar alignment helps, you can guide with OK-ish alignment, especially at ED80's focal lengths.
After doing a really good alignment once I have marked 3 spots on the ground (has to be stable) and I place the mount exactly on them and make sure it is perfectly level. Now the alignment is very quick and guiding takes care of small inaccuracies. You can do polar alignment with PHD as well and you get better at it very quickly.
You said that your guiding system will have to wait for a while. As a cheaper/free alternative, do you have a webcam that can be attached to the ED80? If yes can use this setup for guiding and to learn about it. You could even use a DSLR with a lens for imaging while guiding with ED80+webcam. I know it is backwards but at least it gives you a taste of it.
You can also use a webcam with ED80 to measure PE which you can then program into the mount. This will (hopefully) allow you to go longer unguided, provided the polar alignment is really good.
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