Welcome to the Bank of Dad. We are a friendly bank that encourage young savers to deposit money and learn the values of saving. We do not judge you on your purchases and we offer you a free overdraft, with options to earn extra.
The Bank of Dad
Balancing the value of money between our two girls can get spicy at times. Abigail doesn’t understand that spending £100 on Shopkins may not be great value. Imogen on the other hand will select carefully and choose one item and save the rest for the next shopping trip. Which is great. They are different and have different view points. Until the next shopping trip! Abigail will then start crying because it isn’t fair that Imogen has money and she doesn’t. Imogen will feel guilty and offer her sister a small purchase. Which is very kind, but not really getting to the root of the issue.
The pocket money saga continues when we announced we were going to London.
Imogen: Awww. Thats not fair. Abigail will have her Birthday money to spend in London
Abigail: YES!!! And Nana is giving me £100. So I’ll have lots to spend.
It was time to try and work on a savings plan. Our two love having money, but are desperate to throw it away. Then have spending regrets. How can we balance the accounts without just giving hand outs?
They both have pocket money jars in their rooms, which are filled with loose change and birthday money etc. Occasionally we used to give Imogen £5 for keeping her room tidy for the week. Which works great until, we didn’t have a £5 note on use on the Friday / Saturday. We let the system down by saying we’ll owe you double next week. Or if we were out shopping Imogen would pre-spend her money and “we’ll take it off next weeks room money”. It all got complicated and fell to bits. We didn’t have the cash and the kids didn’t see the incentives.
Pocket Money Bank Account
I bought a pair of exercise books and cut them in half to make them tall and skinny. Wrapped the cover in Gold Vinyl and added some letters. Ta Daa! The Bank of Dad was born. Unlike other banking options that kids are desperate to try, The Bank of Dad doesn’t charge any fees. I can’t think of anything worse than having to pay £2.50 per month to a banking company, when I could give that money to my kids and they’d get more sure out of it (probably buying shopkins!).
The Bank books have a simple layout. The Date, The money in or Out, the running total and the initials of the Banker (me!).
Imogen was first to use her Bank book. She earned some money helping me in the garden for 3 hours. We direct credited her Tidy room money in to the account and she deposited her coins from the Money Jar.
Abigail followed suit and handed in her birthday money. We then Direct credited her some money for getting her spellings right at school (£1 for 8 out of 8 spellings). She also deposited two £1 coins.
What does the Bank of Dad do with it’s money?
The money gets cycled around. Obviously the savings total doesn’t disappear and if at any point they wanted to spend all their money they could. It just means we need to go to the bank or buy their purchase online or in store for them. Depending upon the Cash value in the Vaults of Dad, it may get split and deposited into Dad’s bank (that’s a different bank). A float is always kept on site in the vault.
Here is a situation that shows how the money cycle works.
Abigail had 3 wobbly teeth. That night as she was lying in bed she pulled one out. Nightmare! She put the tooth under her pillow and the tooth fairy didn’t come. The reason being I had no cash on me. So the next night after Dinner, I shout “BANK’S OPEN”. Abigail deposits £2 into her bank book. That night the Tooth Fairy gave her £2 (strange that). Again that night after dinner I shout “BANK’S OPEN”. Abigail puts her £2 into her bank account.
Three Days later another tooth comes out and the same two £1 coins are given back to her. The total balance on her book is increasing, but I’m not struggling to scrape coins together.
Not the nicest photo, but there is another wobbler in the middle as I type!
Spending Money from the Bank Of Dad
It currently isn’t an issue, but could become one in a couple of years for Imogen!
At the moment if the kids want to buy something generally we are with them. So would pay for it with either our cards or cash. Then update the books when we can. This gives them the chance to buy online or in store.
As they get older and want their independence, I know that we won’t be with them when they want to spend money. I used to empty my money box and head into Town to buy Bath Pearls from the Body Shop (don’t ask I was strange). I guess at that point we will need to see what we can do / what is available.
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