Apps that can help parents and kids manage money earned from allowances

HORSHAM, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- A hot topic among parents these days is kids' allowances.

Do you give your kids an allowance? How much? When do you start? And do you tie allowances to chores? How do you keep track?

There are so many things to consider so we went looking for answers and found - there's an app for that.

Eleven year old Gabriella Rodriguez from Horsham, Montgomery County helps out a lot around the house.

"I make my bed every day," she said. "Clean up the dinner table, put the dishes in the sink."

She also says she vacuums once a week and takes care of the dog. Tied to her chores is an allowance.

"Ten dollars a week if I do everything," she said.

"You'll get an allowance, but you do have things you need to have done," said her father, Chris Rodriguez. "There should be something behind getting that money."

"We truly believe that it's important to teach children responsibility," said her mother, Colleen Rodriguez.

Gabriella started earning her allowance two years ago when she was nine.

"They can feel like, wow, I had to work for two weeks to buy that thing that I really wanted," said Greg Murset CEP from the BusyKid app.

Murset launched the app to help kids manage their money. The app comes with a children's debit card that parents can load with the money their kids earn.

"Put some in saving/investing, put some in sharing, and put some in spending automatically," he said.

Murset created the app based on what's worked for his own six children.

"Five have left the nest, they all have had more than $10,000 saved up when they left."

To help Gabriella manage her money, the Rodriguez family uses a similar app called Greenlight, which also comes with a debit card.

"Whatever time I get a chore done, I'll click off like a check box," she said.

"And at the end of the week, you can set it up to actually auto pay if all the chores are done. Or you could transfer money over from your account into her account," said Colleen.

On both Greenlight and BusyKids, parents can set controls like limits on spending and track purchases.

"Whenever she has to make a transaction or anything like that I can look on my phone and alerts me on my phone. I can see where it is where she is," said Chris.

"There are times that she has gone to the store and has run out of money. And we've actually had to learn how to put stuff back on the shelves, because we cannot pay for that that day," said Colleen. "I think it's a great thing and all parents should do it."

Greenlight plans begin at $4.99 month. For $9.99 a month, parents can have more features, including investing for kids.

BusyKid claims to be the lowest price in the industry at $4 a month per family for all features.

There's also a free app with fewer features called I-Allowance.