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|A |6Special Program |A ^1I Can Budget |Aͺ |6Special Program |A
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^Cby Tom Hall and Jeff Jones
^Cadapted for the IBM PC by Michael Amarello

    ^1I Can Budget^0 is a powerful, yet easy to use, home budget template for
 Lotus 1-2-3 (and compatible) spreadsheets.

    Hopefully, I Can Budget will help you to manage your money better -- no
 more being broke three days before payday, no more paying bills late, and more
 money going into your bank account.

    I Can Budget comes with two files:

                           YBUDGET - the yearly budget

                           MBUDGET - the monthly budget.

    To use MBUDGET, run your spreadsheet and retrieve MBUDGET from the Big Blue
 Disk.  Enter your name and the current month in the appropriate cells near the
 top of the spreadsheet. Continue by enetering into column two (Amount
 Budgeted) the amount you expect (or want) to spend for each of the categories.
 (You can change these columns if you like, but I recommend that you change
 only the Credit Card and Open Category titles.)  I Can Budget will then
 calculate the total amount you expect to spend this month.

    Enter your expected income for the month in column two below the expense
 total.  I Can Budget will then calculate your total income AND the difference
 between what you expect to make and what you expect to spend.  Hopefully your
 expected income is greater than your expected expenses.

    Throughout the month keep track of all your expenses by category and at the
 end of the month enter them into column three -- Actual Amount Spent.  Do the
 same for your income.  I Can Budget will then calculate the difference between
 what you expected to spend and what you actually spent.  Positive numbers in
 column four are good -- you spent less than you expected, but negative numbers
 are bad.  You can use the figures in column four to adjust your budget for the
 following month and to find ways to reduce your expenses (since that is
 usually a lot easier than increasing your income.)

    If you wish you can add comments to any of the items in the monthly budget
 before you print it out for your records.

    Now you are ready to use YBUDGET - the yearly budget...

    At the end of the month copy column three - the Actual Amount Spent from
 MBUDGET into the appropriate column in YBUDGET.  Do the same for your income.
 You can then use the yearly budget information to spot alarming trends that
 may be costing you money.

    The first time you use YBUDGET you should enter your name in the
 appropriate cell. You should also enter the current month (or date) whenever
 you print out the yearly budget.

    That's all.  I hope you can use I Can Budget to help you save more money!
