diff --git a/app/page-data.inc.php b/app/page-data.inc.php
index 8b186e84..c3ffd83a 100644
--- a/app/page-data.inc.php
+++ b/app/page-data.inc.php
@@ -194,6 +194,9 @@ static function create_textfile_vars($page) {
 
     # include shared variables for each page
     $shared = (file_exists('./content/_shared.txt')) ? file_get_contents('./content/_shared.txt') : '';
+    # strip any $n matches from the text, as this will mess with any preg_replaces
+    # they get put back in after the template has finished being parsed
+    $text = preg_replace('/\$(\d+)/', "\x02$1", $text);
 
     # remove UTF-8 BOM and marker character in input, if present
     $merged_text = preg_replace('/^\xEF\xBB\xBF|\x1A/', '', array($shared, $text));
diff --git a/app/parsers/template-parser.inc.php b/app/parsers/template-parser.inc.php
index b7dd7472..2669370f 100644
--- a/app/parsers/template-parser.inc.php
+++ b/app/parsers/template-parser.inc.php
@@ -88,6 +88,8 @@ static function parse($data, $template) {
 
     # we've finished parsing, so return any remaining @ symbols
     $template = str_replace("\x01", '@', $template);
+    # put back any $ characters
+    $template = str_replace("\x02", '$', $template);
 
     return $template;
   }