Alan:
Thanks for your feedback. I will check out the links you've
provided. Personal Finances 2000 sounds like what I'm looking
for. So I'll download it tonight and have a look see.
Regarding you question, which you may have intended as a
rhetorical one, I have written a chapter about purchasing
computers. The crux of my philosophy is that by being
careful with the way you you manage your money, you can
save enough to buy some of the things that are supposedly
only available to the middle and upper class. If you manage to
save $20 on 50 different purchases over the course of a year,
you've got a grand to buy an acceptable computer. Or you can
you stop subscribing to a daily paper and stop buying coffee and
donuts on the way to work, and turn down the thermostat, and
buy the cheapest canned goods available, etc., etc. , etc.
There are also a bunch of ways to acquire a PC without expending
large amounts of money, including building your own, buying used,
bartering, sharing costs, buying refurbished, surplus from your
company or school, etc. You don't have to have a state of the art PC
to access the net or a 400 mhz system to perform most tasks.
You can even go the Web TV or use the computer at the library.
I honestly believe that being computer knowledgeable can be the
"great equalizer" in terms of condensing the gap between the rich
and everyone else.
The software is not essential. A budget can certainly be done
with paper and pencil. I just want this to be an option and to
demonstrate another way to save money. I agree that spreadsheets
work very well for this. I've used them for all kinds of record
keeping. I just don't want the learning curve to be very high or
to discourage the reader.
Thanks again for your time and energy.
Joe
>Joe, in your book where you are going to show low income families how
>to get freeware budget programs, how are you going to show them how to
>get the computers to run these programs? :-)
>A spreadsheet program is the best for setting up a budget because that
>offers you individual flexibility based on your needs. Spreadsheet
>programs are usually part of expensive office suite software. However,
>the StarOffice software is free and offers those on a budget and even
>those with money, quality home office suite software, including a
>spreadsheet program to set up a budget:
>http://wwwwswest2.sun.com/staroffice/
>Else, here are three home finance programs that one might utilize:
>Personal Finances 2000 is a freeware checking and savings register
>program allowing you to set up a budget.
>
>http://www.iic.cc/personalfinances.html
>
>---
>
>Cash Flow
>
>CashFlow is a simple freeware application that keeps track of all kinds
>of payments. The application holds lists of incoming and outgoing
>payments along with their due dates and other information.
>
> http://home.t-online.de/home/ulrich.hilger/dlcf.htm
>
>---
>
>Home Accountant - program for management of the home finance and
>obtaining of statistics about motion of money resources.
>
> http://members.xoom.com/_XOOM/KieProgSoft/index.htm
>
>---
>
>See the following page at winfiles.com for more ideas. I just have
>picked out a few freeware programs. There are some low cost shareware
>programs listed here:
>
> http://winfiles.cnet.com/apps/98/finance-acct.html
>
>Alan
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
