Once they started using the money-management software, we just entered the amount of their allowance in the software program’s register each week. That way they kept a running total of how much money they were entitled to. Then whenever they wanted to purchase something, I would pay for it (since I was there at the store with them anyway) and they would take that amount out of their account’s register.

So the software kept track of how much they were allowed to spend/give/had in savings even though they didn’t have the actual cash in their hands at that moment. It’s very similar to having a checking or saving account at a bank: the bank keeps the actual cash and you keep track of how much you spend and how much you have left. I was playing the part of the bank.

By the way, now that my two oldest are old enough to learn how to manage their own real checking accounts, we added up the amounts in each one’s home software account registers and opened actual checking accounts at the bank with that amount as the opening balance. They’re already used to keeping track of credits and debits in the software, the only difference is that now they use their own check cards instead of my doling out the money they spend on a purchase.

Does that help explain it?