Sunday 5 May 2013

Spending Pocket Money Online

With my partners birthday only 3 weeks away I've had multiple requests this week from our teenagers for me to make online purchases for them.

I don't mind being the intermediary, but it is a dramatic change from what we had 3 or 4 years ago, when I would take them all into town, send them off with a fiver and they'd come back 40 minutes later with something entirely inappropriate and over-priced. I liked that, it was exciting, and often pretty random....



We all buy more online, so it is I suppose just modernisation and we should expect our children to want to buy online because that's what they see us doing.

I was asked this week to try out Virtual Piggy - an online pocket money tool for children. The idea behind it is that you put pocket money into your child's 'fund' and then they designate savings and make online wishlists from stores which have been okayed by the adult.

It is in the early stages in the UK, and it was awkward to get initially set up, but once it's working it was clear and easy to use for all of my teenagers. It clearly has drawbacks in that it wouldn't really work if your child spends most of their pocket money on comics and sweeties, but I can see that it's potentially a very useful tool, especially at Christmas and birthdays if you are blessed with lots of generous relatives (who can be given their own access to see the wishlists for the children). It works on the same principal as Pinterest - your child simply 'pins' things they like, in the same way that I used to cut out things from the Argos catalogue and stick them onto a big sheet of paper!

Alas we don't have many relatives, and our children do usually waste all their money on small bits of plastic that break in 15 minutes, or family bags of Skittles....but maybe one day they'll decide they want to save for something a bit more special...


In return for testing my teenagers were allowed to choose a pocket money toy (under £10) for their little brothers from The Toadstool Online Toy Shop

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12 comments:

  1. I will look at the site when my kids are a bit older. Now they too young to used it. Thanks.

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  2. I love the idea of this, I think it has potential once the teething troubles have been ironed out?

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    1. I think you're right. I can think of several of my friends who would find it very useful, and the idea that they pin a wishlist is really helpful for birthdays and Christmas. It is early stages in the UK, that's the reason we were testing it - to find the bugs :)

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    2. I forgot to say, I loved the photo of your gifts from the kids. I'm liking forward to mine choosing their own!

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    3. Hahaha....that's nothing! That was just what I could see from where I was sitting :D
      Gifts from your children really are in a league of their own ;)

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  3. It's a great idea in theory, look forward to testing it once the bugs have been resolved

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    1. Yeah, I think it's just the currency difference that makes it awkward, once they've made it easier to select that initially it'll be great :)

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    2. they are on it they said -

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  4. I really like your picture representing "something entirely inappropriate and over-priced. I liked that, it was exciting, and often pretty random...."

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