Split pocket money into jars

Jars split earnings the moment they are earned. Instead of a lump sum and a conversation about saving, the money arrives already divided.

1. More → Settings → Pocket money, and turn on Money jars.
2. Tap Jar split and set how much of each reward goes to Spend, Save, Give and Invest. The four have to add up to 100%.

Every pocket money payment then divides that way automatically.

Why do it this way

Because a rule set in advance is easier to keep than a decision made each time. A child who has agreed that a fifth goes to saving is not being asked to be virtuous every Saturday, and neither is the grown-up.

Children can see it

Each child’s screen shows their jars and what is in them, in the household’s currency. Seeing a saving jar fill up is most of the point. If you turn off Pocket money on their board for a child, in More → Settings → Children’s boards, the jars come off their board too, and go on filling up.

From version 1.17.0 of the app, a jar set to 0% is hidden from the child’s board, so they see only the jars their money goes into. It is hidden straight away, even if it still has money in it. That money stays in the jar and still counts in their pocket money total, so while it is there the jars on their board add up to less than the total. To hand it over, tap Pay out pocket money… under the child in More → Settings → Children’s boards, and choose that jar. Or set the jar above 0% again, and it is back on their board with its money. The Jar split sheet says so too: “A jar set to 0% is hidden on the children’s boards.” An older version of Equal House on a child’s own device still shows all four jars, so update that too.

Changing the split

Changing the proportions affects money earned from then on. It does not go back and re-divide what has already been earned, which would rewrite a promise after the fact.