The PKTMNY Experience

By Nadine On December 14, 2012 · Leave a Comment

We’ve had an enlightening in our house- a former spendaholic has converted into a savvy saver and I’m not talking about me! My little girl is all grown up, or at least some of her attitudes towards money are, as a result of taking part in the newly launched PKTMNY system that helps parents and children manage the financial area of pocket money!

Here is my last post about starting the PKTMNY experience and my daughter’s attitudes to money. She was a typical 9 year old, she would get cash in her hand and want to spend it immediately, mostly on rubbish, for the sake of spending it. However using the PKTMNY cashless system over the past few weeks has taught her that money doesn’t expire, and she can save up her cash in this online account to be able to achieve the things she really wants, rather than frittering it away.

She gets £2 per week pocket money which she earns by feeding the cats at home, and this is paid each Saturday. On the first weekend that she had the PKTMNY Visa debit card, pre-loaded with £3, she didn’t use it! I had given her £1 as a grown up girl bonus, for trying out this system and she earned the other £2. I had sat her down and explained how this new system works and that she is one of the first children in the country to try it out. I explained that no-one else in her school has a pre-paid VISA debit card, and that this was a grown up way to manage money, and that I have a bank debit card in my purse that I use to pay for things, and this is the way cards work.

By entrusting her with this grown up subject, and encouraging her to become more responsible with money, she has stepped up to the mark and really made me proud. She already has a more mature attitude to money and has even said that “This card is less tempting than ‘real’ money”, acknowledging that she probably would have spent the £3 if she had coins in her purse, rather than this card.

We went online to her account and set a savings goal, so she can see on a graph, how much money she currently has and how much more she needs to get to her target. This visual representation of her starting point and an end goal has worked in focusing her in the right direction. She is a very visual and goal oriented child- she loves working toward awards and getting them at school. For example, she was very upset recently when she was sick for two days and had to miss school because it ruined her 100% attendance record and the kids who have a flawless attendance record get a certificate and badge at the end of the year (oh! And an ice cream which is what I suspect also motivated her!) But the way that she can log in and see her spending or saving patterns on the computer was like an incentive to her to keep saving, so she can achieve her goal of going to a theme park with lots of rollercoasters!

Child Tasks

My daughter says she felt very grown up when she went to the cash machine with her card to change the PIN number. She wanted something more memorable, and as soon as she’d done it, the card went safely back in the purse where it has remained ever since!

The online system has interactive, age appropriate tools to help the messages around money sink in, and it helps engage the children in getting involved and controlling their money. Our experience is ‘so far, so good’, but we are still new at it so it’ll be interesting to see what happens over a longer period as the money amounts accumulated get higher and there is more opportunity to buy interesting things with the money earned. At least by then, I’ll have laid the foundation of good money management, and my daughter’s learning around this subject can grow from there.

This post is part of a project with BritMums, sponsored by PKTMNY, highlighting it’s launch. The new tool allows parents to easily pay and monitor their children’s pocket money online, whilst allowing their children to earn, save, spend and manage their money in a totally safe and fun way. My family have been trialing the service and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for BritMums for the PKTMNY launch.
Here is the Sponsor’s website