An affordable way to let your child spend their allowance.

BusyKid is a chore app that allows you to pay your child on a weekly basis for the tasks they complete. The BusyKid Visa Prepaid Spend Debit Card is one of the many ways they can use their hard-earned money.

What is BusyKid?

Just a quick disclaimer – Your child does not need to have a phone to use the app.

This is all done through a single family account, which all members access using their own unique PIN code. If they do happen to forget the parent has easy access to change or remind them of the special PIN. On the parents side tasks are created and priced.

BusyKid does offer a quick set up depending on children’s age that auto populates the most used tasks. These include, take a bath, brush teeth, make bed, ect. I believe some of them are mandatory tasks that should be done and not typically rewarded. These can be set to $0 if desired allowing them to just recieve a check list on certain tasks. If all non paying tasks are completed by the end of the week a small bonus will be rewarded. I find this helps to not only encourage them to practice basic responsibilities but keeps them checking off things in the app and on a schedule.

BusyKid a online service that teaches children responsibilities by encouraging them to do chores or tasks. For $7.99 a year, parents can assign tasks to multiple family members with a cash value on each, upon completion. Money earned on completed tasks can be saved, spent, invested or even donated.

There is a lot of things you can do on the app to reward children so get as creative as you like, everyone parents a little different so what works for your kid may not work for another parents family. On that note if you are a larger family with a larger age gap between kids there will may be and probably will be different things to add to one and not the other.

Downloading the BusyKid app

Step 1: Download

Simply start by downloading the Busy Kid App from either the Google play store or Apple Store.

Once downloaded you will see the following screen. You can scroll through the 5 banners to see some features but we are going to cover those in this article.

Select the sign up button on the bottom of the app to continue to the next step.

Step 2: Create Your Account

This step is basic, fill out your information and agree to the terms and conditions.

This will be the main parents information. Don’t worry you can add the other parent or any adult you want to manage the account. You can also have more than 2 “parent” profiles in the app.

Concerned about funding when it comes to another “parent” user? BusyKid has you covered, upon creation of another parent user you can select if they have access to the funding source or not.

Step 3: Confirm your Account

BusyKid will email you with a unique 5 digit number. This will need to be put in on this step of the activation in order to confirm and use your BusyKid account.

If you don’t see an email check that your email address is correct or that it did not find its way in to your spam folder.

Step 4: Creating a PIN

After you successfully verify your account you will be brought to this screen where you will create your parent PIN. This is unique to you and should not be shared with anyone.

Each BusyKid member will have their own PIN making each account secure and unique. If needed you as the parent can change it.

If you for some reason forget the PIN you do have the option to recover it through email verification.

Step 5: Your almost there

The last step it so simply add your family. When you select profile you will be faced with a screen to either create another parent or to create a child. At this time you can choose whichever suits your need.

We will go over these options in more depth later in the article. For now you are now a member of the BusyKid family.

See what “Mr. Wonderful” from says about BusyKid!

Download the BusyKid app on
Google play or Apple store.

How chores are set up

This is going to seem like a long process but it really isn’t. Going step by step on an article makes it seem like a lot but we want to be as detailed as we can.

First we need to enter the child’s name and date of birth in to the BusyKid app. As soon as that is entered you will notice the screen expand with more options.

Here you can allocate different percentages that go into each account during an allowance payout.

Just below that you will see the PIN creation. Create them a unique pin just for them and this step is finished. You should be directed to the dashboard for than newly created child.

Fill out child info

Allocate allowance and PIN

Child has been created

Add your first chores

Now that your child’s account is set up it is time to start adding chores. From the bottom menu you are going to select the chores option. Once selected you will see the month/year with view icons to the right. Below you will see the weekly view days. And rite below that you will see there are no chores and a link to add them. Lets select the “Tap here to add”.

Once clicked you will see your child’s name at the top. Make sure you are editing the correct child or group of children. Below you will notice a chore to select, price of the chore, and a frequency the chore must be done.

“Select or enter chore”

Start to type in a chore

Select a chore or press done to create a new one

For this demonstration we will tap on the field to “select or enter chore” this pulls up the most common chores. You can type in the chore you want and if listed choose it. Or you are able to create your own chore name. For this demonstration we are going to type in “weed”. As shown it pulls up “pull weeds”. This is what we are wanting. Lets select it and move on to the next step.

Select “Price” and “Repeat” frequency

After saved it now shows in chore list

Weekly chore view

As soon as you click on a chore or type your own you will be directed back to the chore editor. Here you can adjust the price, frequency of the chore and when the first day of this chore will start.

Once saved it will go back to the child’s main page showing the chore. If you do not see the chore pop up it may be because you set it for a day other than the day you are creating it. To check this click the far right icon, this gives you a list of all chores. In our case pulling weeds is due today so on the weekly view it shows as due today, monday the first.

Weekly view

List view

All chore view

Chore views

We have illustrated a few screenshots adding more chores and using the different viewing options available.

First image is the week view showing that on monday the 1st Shyla is to brush her teeth and pull weeds.

Second image illustrates a list of all chores in a list view. This list can be scrolled down to see upcoming chores easily.

And the last image is a view of all chores that the child has. On the child’s end these are not clickable. But on the parents dashboard you can use this to easily find chores and when clicked you can edit them.

Child view of completed chores

Parents view of completed chores

Editing completion of choes

Completed chores

Once chores are completed both the parents and che childs dashboard will reflect this. The child’s chore list will have a green marker next to the chore stating “I did it!”. And on the parents side a green check mark appears next to each chore.

On the parents side you also have 3 dots next to the checkmark of a completed or non completed chore. Selecting this will pull up a menu where you can edit, mark incomplete or even delete the chore. Remember there is also different ways to view the chore data by selecting the day and list view. Children also can unselect the “I did it” next to a chore if they accidently clicked it or for any other reason.

Pay Day!

Now that your child has completed their chores for the week lets go over how easy it is to send them their hard earned allowance. Keep in mind when you send over allowance it will automatically be deposited in to their account and split in to the Spend, Save and share section depending how you allocated it in the app. We will go over how to reallocate the allowance if needed.

Child can see allowance is due

Parents dashboard – pending approval

Click to approve Payday

On your child’s dashboard they will see what is being made on their payday. This is also reflected in the parents dashboard. In the example on the parents side we let the due date pass so that you can see that message. If it is not passed it will just state “Approve Payday” Once you click approve you will get a pop up with the child selected and there you can approve it. The payment will be sent to the allocated sections in the child’s account.

Settings -> Manage Profiles

Select the childs profile

Adjust allowance allocation

How to reallocate the allowance

While in the parents dashboard select the settings gear icon at the bottom right of the app. Once selected tap on the “Manage Profiles” section. Here you will get a list of all profiles in the app. Select the child you wish to edit.

The allowance allocation section features an easy slider that you can use to slide the allocation left to right. If you wish you can make one of these 0%. Let’s say you do not wish for your younger child donate “share” simply move the right slider all the way over and it will turn to “0”. Then to adjust the Spend and Save section slide the first slider to the left or right to change the percentage in each of the categories.

Download the BusyKid app on
Google play or Apple store.

Donating on the BusyKid app

BusyKid app allows your child to donate to a variety of charities. Charities include:

American Red Cross
Ronald McDonald House
Special Olympics
Toys for Tots
Buneke
Autismmvp
Our Military Kids
And many more…. Check them out here.

Money is not just about spending. It also includes giving. BusyKid greatly believes in the helping others and that kids should learn this early in life. Children that learn this is part of money fundamentals at a young age will use their money to help others in need now and in the future.

This feature is set up in the “Share” tab on your child’s account. Automatic allowance can be placed in this fund or you can decide to leave it at zero and allow your child to donate on their own.

We also encourage you to not only just donate to a charity but show your kids info about the selected charity. This can easily be done by visiting the charity website or youtube channel and showing them how and what their donations are doing to help.

Investing with BusyKid

How Investing Works

BusyKid is the only chore chart app that gives your kids the awesome power to use their hard earned allowance to invest in stocks. To name a few, Disney, Apple, and Netflix, American Express, Amazon and Aflac. Their exclusive partner, Stockpile investing in stock is free to do and only a 0.99 fee if they decide to sell.

Stockpile is an investing app that we highly recommend looking in to. Not only does it work great in the BusyKid app but it is separate so you too can invest and grow your own portfolio. You will need an account anyways to make use of it and grow an investment portfolio on your own. Besides it also gives you something to show your young investor and encourage them to do the same. Remember your child is set up under a custodial account under your name so you have FULL control over everything.

100% Guaranteed your child will be thrilled to see how this grows their savings with the BusyKid app.

Here is the stockpile article on this – How does BusyKid work with Stockpile

BUSYKID SPEND CARD

Someday maybe even very soon your kids are going to have their own debit card.t. Why not start early and get them used to it? BusyKid is free to use but to get them a debit card of their own it’s only $7.99 a year to grab one. This allows you to connect your kids’ allowance to the prepaid debit card. Giving them the ability to practice responsible spending with their hard earned allowance just as they will in the real world.

Once allowance is given to your kids you now have the great pleasure of sitting down with them and deciding how much they want to put on their card. Doing this regularly allows your kids to develop positive spending decisions that will help them in the future to properly manage their funds.

I guarantee your child will be ecstatic the first time they get to go in to a store and use their card for the first time. They may be a bit picky trying to choose a toy, article of clothing, some random item that you have no clue why they would want but the thought process is now in development. Instead of asking you to buy something for them they are now looking at their card and wondering what can I buy with what I have on my card. This is the thought process that encourages children to start thinking about real life finances.

The card can also be tracked in the parents dashboard giving all the detailed transactions that your child is doing. On the card both your name and the child’s name will be present.

Check out the BusyKid video below to see how you can help your child learn about money, investing, donating and time management.

Download the BusyKid app on
Google play or Apple store.

Kids can invest also – BusyKids review 2020

An affordable way to let your child spend their allowance.

What is BusyKid?

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