How to use Piggy

What Piggy is

Piggy is an educational allowance tracker, not a bank. The balances inside the app reflect an agreement between you and your kid about money you control. Piggy never holds, moves, or invests real money. The interest on the Future Vault and the fixed deposits are learning simulations, not financial products.

There are two ways to run it:

• Standalone (free). Everything lives on one phone. Nothing is sent to our servers. Perfect for one parent tracking one or more kids.
• Family Plan ($11.99/year, 7-day free trial). Adds encrypted cloud sync so a second parent and kids with their own phones all see the same chores and balances.

Getting started

The first time you open Piggy it walks you through a short setup wizard. Follow it in order:

1. On the welcome screen, tap I'm a parent. (A kid joining a family that's already set up taps I have a code instead, covered in Family Plan & kid devices.)
2. Enter your name and the nickname your kid calls you ("Dad", "Mama"), then confirm the parental-consent notice and tap Continue.
3. Add your kid: first name, tap an avatar, choose an age tier (it tailors the chore tone and badges to their age), and optionally pick a birthday. Tap Continue. The birthday powers the Birthday Box payout; you can add it later in Settings.
4. Pick your currency, then set the bucket split (how earnings divide across the five buckets). The defaults are sensible, so you can just tap Continue and change them later.
5. Choose secure parent mode: keep the default Face ID / passcode, or switch to a 4-digit PIN. See Parent lock below for the full details.
6. Finally, choose Standalone (free, this phone) or Family Plan (sync across phones). Standalone is a safe start, you can upgrade anytime.

Finding your way around

Piggy has two faces, and each has its own bottom navigation bar. The parent app is where you set up and approve; the kid view is what your child sees and taps.

From the parent 📱 Home tab you also reach the less-frequent screens through the action grid: Send Gift, Manage FDs, Your Kids, and Transactions. To hand the phone to your child, tap Kid mode on Home.

The five buckets

This is the heart of Piggy. Every time money arrives (an approved chore, a gift, a bonus) it auto-splits into five buckets by the percentages you set. Kids learn why we save before how much.

Setting and changing the split

The percentages must add up to 100. To change them:

⚙️ Settings → Customize Piggy → Bucket split % → Edit split

Adjust each bucket, keep the total at 100%, and save. The new split applies to all your kids and to money earned from then on. The yearly growth rates for the Birthday Box and Future Vault are set in the same ⚙️ Settings tab.

Example: how a $10 chore splits

With the default split, a $10 approved chore lands like this:

Prefer more spending money and less long-term locking? Bump Spend up and Future Vault down, as long as the five still total 100. Your kid sees the live split on their 💳 Wallet tab, where each bucket shows its balance, when it unlocks, and a projection.

Chores & earning

Add a chore (parent)

1. Tap the 🧹 Chores tab in the bottom bar.
2. Tap Add New Chore.
3. Fill in the chore title (for example "Make the bed") and pick an emoji.
4. Enter the amount it's worth.
5. Choose how often it repeats: Daily, Weekly, or One-time. Optionally set a deadline (a date and time to finish by).
6. Under Assign to, pick all kids or specific ones.
7. Tap Add Chore ✨.

To change or remove a chore later, tap it on the Chores tab to edit, or long-press to delete.

Do a chore (kid)

1. On the kid's 🏠 Home tab, open Earn today, or go to the ✅ Chores tab.
2. Tap Done on the finished chore. It shows "sent for approval" and moves to ⏱ Pending.
3. Once you approve it (see Approvals), the value lands and auto-splits into the buckets, and the chore shows ✓ Completed.

The kid's Chores tab groups everything into Available, Pending, Missed, and Completed. Doing a chore each day builds a streak, shown on Home. Miss a day and it resets, but nothing is lost from balances.

Approvals

You approve money before it moves, so you always stay in control. Everything waiting on you collects in one place:

✅ Approvals tab

Each card is one request. It might be a:

• Chore completion your kid marked done,
• Goal payout, wallet payout, or give payout they requested.

1. Tap Approve ✓ on a card to credit it, or deny it if it isn't done.
2. In a hurry? Tap Approve all to clear everything at once.
3. For a payout, you'll see a Hand over cash 💸 confirmation, a reminder to give your kid the real money the app just recorded.

On Family Plan, new approval requests also arrive as a push notification, so you don't have to keep checking.

Goals

Goals turn "I want that" into a visible, motivating plan the kid tracks themselves.

1. On the kid's 🎯 Goals tab, tap Set a New Goal.
2. Name the goal (for example "Lego set"), pick an emoji, and enter how much it costs. Optionally set a deadline.
3. Tap Set Goal 🎯. Progress fills as the kid saves.
4. When they're ready to buy it, they tap Request Payout 🎁 on the goal, and you approve it from your ✅ Approvals tab.

Fixed deposits

A fixed deposit (FD) teaches the trade-off at the center of saving: lock money away for a while, earn more interest.

Start an FD (kid)

1. On the 💳 Wallet tab, on the Spend bucket tap Lock in a FD to earn more interest (or open My Fixed Deposits at the top of the Wallet).
2. Enter the amount to lock (from the available Spend balance).
3. Choose a lock period. Each option shows its interest rate; longer locks earn more.
4. Add an optional title or reason, then tap Request 🏦.
5. The FD goes to you for approval. Once approved, it counts down to maturity, then returns the money plus interest to the wallet.

Set the FD interest rates (parent)

You decide the rate for each lock period:

📱 Home → Manage FDs → interest rates   (or ⚙️ Settings → FD Interest Rates)

The same screen lists every kid's active and pending FDs so you can watch them mature. Like the Future Vault, FD interest is an educational simulation, not a real financial product.

Gifts & bonuses

Beyond chores, you can hand your kid money directly.

1. On the parent 📱 Home tab, tap Send Gift.
2. Choose which kid it's for and enter an amount.
3. Pick an occasion (Birthday, Festival, Bonus, or Just because) and add an optional message.
4. Tap Send Gift 💝. The gift auto-splits into their buckets just like earnings do.

If you've set your kid's birthday, the Birthday Box also opens automatically each year with its yearly bonus added, no action needed.

Paying out & giving

When your kid actually spends their money, you hand over the real cash and record it so the balance stays honest.

Pay out from Spend (parent)

1. Tap the 💸 Pay Out tab.
2. Pick the kid and enter the amount (up to their Spend balance).
3. Confirm with Hand over cash 💸, and give them the money.

Kid-requested payouts

A kid with their own device can ask, and it lands in your Approvals:

• From the 💳 Wallet tab, on Spend they tap Request a payout from parent.
• On the Donate bucket they tap Request a give payout from parent when they want to give their Donate money away.

Family Plan & kid devices

Family Plan ($11.99/year with a 7-day free trial) adds encrypted cloud sync so more than one phone can share the same family. You can start it during first-time setup, or later from ⚙️ Settings: tap Family invites or Kid devices and Piggy shows the plan and free trial.

Invite a second parent

1. On your phone, go to ⚙️ Settings → Family invites and generate a 6-digit code for a parent.
2. On the other parent's phone, install Piggy and open it. On the first welcome screen of setup, tap I have a code (not "I'm a parent").
3. Keep the I'm a parent tab selected, tap Sign in, then enter the 6-digit code.
4. From then on either parent can approve chores, and balances stay in sync across both phones.

Give a kid their own phone

1. On your phone, go to ⚙️ Settings → Kid devices and add a device for that kid to get a 6-digit code.
2. On the kid's own phone, install Piggy and open it. This has to be a fresh start: on the first welcome screen of setup, tap I have a code (not "I'm a parent").
3. Switch to the I'm a kid tab, type the 6-digit code, and tap Join my family.
4. They'll see their balance, do chores, and request payouts, while you stay the approver.

Kid devices and a second parent both need Family Plan.

Parent lock

Parent screens are protected so a kid can't approve their own chores or change the rules. By default Piggy uses your phone's Face ID or passcode. To switch to a separate 4-digit PIN, or change it later:

⚙️ Settings → Parent lock

Choose Face ID / passcode, or a 4-digit PIN with a recovery question (used to get back in if you forget the PIN). The kid's 🎨 Me tab is the only door back into parent mode, and it asks for the lock first.

Settings reference

Open the ⚙️ Settings tab. Everything you can adjust lives here:

• Currency for all balances and chore values.
• Bucket split % (Edit split), how earnings divide across the five buckets for all kids.
• Birthday Box & Future Vault growth rates, the yearly interest applied to those buckets.
• FD Interest Rates for fixed deposits.
• Each kid's name, avatar, age tier, and birthday, plus Add another kid.
• Kid devices and Family invites (Family Plan).
• Parent lock, switch between Face ID / passcode and a PIN.
• Advanced · Danger zone: reset all data, or delete your account and family data. See our delete account page for exactly what that removes.

Privacy & safety

Piggy is designed for parents to use with their kids. Data about your kid is treated as data about your family, controlled by you. In Standalone mode nothing leaves your phone; Family Plan adds encrypted sync only when you opt in, and we never sell data. Full details are in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Troubleshooting

A kid's invite code says it's invalid or expired

Codes are short-lived and single-use. Ask the parent to generate a fresh one from ⚙️ Settings → Kid devices (or Family invites for a parent), and make sure the kid is on the I'm a kid tab when entering it.

The kid-device option asks for Family Plan

Kid devices and a second parent need Family Plan. Upgrade from your dashboard, then generate the code.

My subscription or a refund

Family Plan is billed by Apple or Google, so manage or cancel it in your App Store or Google Play account. Refunds are handled by the stores too.

Still stuck?

We read every message. Head to Support and email us, usually a reply within one business day.