Database program

[henrymar@gpc.peachnet.edu]

I'm looking for some sort of database or spreadsheet application to use 
as a personal filing system.  I'll be organizing a lot of different 
things that I own and so I anticipate that the file may become extremely 
large.  I'm running debian on an Intel 486 with 16mg RAM.  I worried that 
if I don't get a good program that can handle a large file I may run into 
memory problems.  This may not be a problem since when I installed debian 
I made a 64mg swap partition.  I'm not sure.  

Can anyone suggest a program, preferably one that does not run on X?  I 
just want a plain text based app that gracefully deals with low memory.

Thanks in advance
M.Henry