Teach Your Kids Financial Responsibility with Virtual Piggy #App Review

         My oldest two daughters are tweens looking to establish their independence from mom on a daily basis.   As much as I would like to keep my girls tucked in my safe little cocoon , I know I slowly must give them opportunities to grow into self sufficient young women.  A HUGE part of my job as their mother is to teach them how to be financially responsible.  Gone are the days when you get a five dollar bill for you weekly allowance!  Spend two dollars, put a dollar in a savings jar, and the other two dollars in a jar to donate to a charity/church!  Kids are high tech now and allowances need to follow suit! Introducing Virtual Piggy!

The Virtual Piggy App is available on Apple & Android mobile devices and is free to download!

           Virtual Piggy allows you to set up a profile for each child allowing you to set a specific spending amount per month. You are also able to determine the specific spending amount per merchant!  During setup you can provide a credit card or link to your paypal account to cover your child's monthly purchases.

           Over 80+ merchants have signed up and Virtual Piggy is continually adding more.  These merchants include Barnes & Noble, Regal Movie Theaters, Aeropostale, and Bass Pro Shops to name a few! Virtual Piggy also has charitable options giving your the option to donate to 250+ worthy causes and organizations!

          I was able to set up our Virtual Piggy account in just a few short minutes. I customized a profile for each of my four kids setting specific spending amounts for each child. The parental controls were very easy to to utilize. My favorite part about Virtual Piggy is for each purchase my kids only need to input our Virtual Piggy password.  If the purchase is acceptable per my preset parental controls, then the purchase transaction will be complete. I can even specify which stores they are allowed to make purchases from!  I don't have to worry about my children's need to input our address or  my credit card number for each transaction!  Virtual Piggy has been a great teaching tool for my kids enabling them to budget their money and ensuring age appropriate purchases.   Virtual Piggy is so handy for purchasing books and apps for their Nooks from Barnes and Noble!

Do you give your children an allowance? Would you feel more comfortable utilizing Virtual Piggy instead of giving your children your credit card number for online purchases?

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