Allowance Ledger (Family Bank)
A kid's allowance ledger: record allowance and errand money, see how much you have, and spend within it.
A project built directly by Ted TH Lee.
Why I built it
I wanted my kids to feel the value of money from early on. Record the allowance and errand money that comes in, check how much you actually have when you want to spend, and spend only within that amount — this is a small tool to build that sense.
What it does
- Logs money coming in and going out — allowance, errand money — as it happens.
- Shows the current balance so a child can see, at a glance, what they can spend within.
- As entries pile up, the child starts to reflect on where their money went.
- Built on double-entry bookkeeping, so editing or deleting entries never breaks the balance.
- Includes an option to leave leftover money on deposit with a parent (the family bank).
- Login is delegated to a family account — each child has their own ledger.
Who it's for
Families who want to teach the value of money and spending within a budget through experience
How it was built
A paper allowance notebook did not last at our house. I built a family-sized ledger so allowance and errand money can be recorded when it arrives, and a child can check the current balance before spending. The point is not only the number; the accumulated record makes the flow of money visible.
Accuracy mattered because this is a child's money record. Rather than simply adding and subtracting values, the ledger uses double-entry bookkeeping. That lets an entry be corrected or deleted without quietly breaking the balance of the whole ledger.
How you use it
Record money in and out
Allowance and errand money coming in, and purchases going out, are entered as they happen.
Check each child's balance
Under one family login, each child has a personal ledger and can see the amount currently available to spend.
Look back at the record
As entries accumulate, the ledger shows where money went. Leftover money can also be left on deposit with the family bank.
Questions
- Why use double-entry bookkeeping?
- Entries will sometimes be corrected or removed. Keeping each record as a debit-credit pair prevents those changes from breaking the ledger balance.
- Does every child need an account?
- No. A family login contains a separate ledger for each child, so children do not need to manage their own passwords.
- Can another family use it?
- Deployment documentation is prepared for another family to run its own copy, but the public scope is being considered carefully because it holds children's money records.
Where it is now
Finished and in family use. Right now it sits behind a family login, and I've even prepared deployment docs so another family could spin up their own. I'm thinking through how far, and how, to open it up.