Display currency fields

I have a some textboxes on a form in which the user will enter some numbers. These values correspond to dollar amounts, which I want the user to see, so I put the following code in the textchange event:

VB Code:

txtTextbox1.text = FormatCurrency(txtTextbox1.text)

This works fine. It formats it just the way I want with the $ and everything.
The problem is that when I want to use the value in that textbox for a calculation, I have to use the following code:

VB Code:

txtTotal = FormatCurrency(Val(Mid(txtTextbox1.Text, 2)) + Val(Mid(txtTextbox2.Text, 2)))

I have to use the Mid function just to get the "$" off the front so that it will add correctly. Is there an easier way to do this? I thought of using the Masked Edit Control, but I haven't figured out how to get that as an option in VB.NET. But even if I did, I don't know if it is the best way to solve my problem. Any ideas?

Thanks from this .Net newbie.

wouldn't you just say dim Mytotal as decimal = CDec(Textbox1.text)????