Last month when I was downtown Chicago for a certain conference, I was invited to a breakfast with Virtual Piggy where we talked about money and kids. It’s amazing how many different opinions each parent has on whether or not kids should get allowance and such.
In our house we have a chore system for our kids. They have certain daily chores that they must do. When they complete all their chores for the day they get a star on a chart. When they complete 10 full days of chores they get to have a special date with Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, etc. There are also extra chores they can do in which they can earn a money card (worth .50 each). At the end of the week they turn in all their money cards to get their “allowance”. Our kids don’t just get the money flat out, though. They each have to pay a 10% family tax (which goes towards fun family activities), a 10% tithe which they can donate to a charity or church, and 20% has to go into their savings.
One thing we have a problem with, though, is tracking where their money goes. There’s a new site out there to help you with that and it’s called Virtual Piggy.
You can set Virtual Piggy to add a monthly allowance automatically or make deposits manually. What happens is you can allocate what the kids can spend and what they have to save. They can go out on to the web and make a wishlist and then when they have enough money saved, they can buy things off their list. Don’t worry, they can’t just go spend money all by themselves. You can set it so that you have to approve every transaction or you can set spending limits. (You link a credit card or your PayPal account to your Virtual Piggy account to pay for transactions.)
Currently Virtual Piggy is giving out tickets to the new One Direction movie that is coming out soon. You get a ticket for free when you sign up for Virtual Piggy and make your first purchase with Claires. After making that first purchase, you can refer friends and receive more additional tickets.
Tell me, do you give your kids allowances? Do they have to earn it or is it just something they receive? If they do get an allowance, how do you track their money?
I love that you tax their allowance like the real world!! I’m going to Pin this as a future idea for my boys as they are only 8m now. I already have Virtual Piggy pinned too. Nice meeting you at their blogger breakfast.
I am really excited about Virtual Piggy! I downloaded the app – now I just have to finish the rest! 😉
Our kids are supposed to get allowance, but we never have cash on hand, so they don’t really ever get it (opps!).
Taxing and tithing are good things to take out of the money they get. Great idea.