Kids chore chart and allowance tracker that adds up
The chart says three stickers, Leo says four dishwashers, and you owe somebody money. Decide what a tick is worth, then pay from the list.
November 2, 2026
It is Saturday morning and Leo says he did the dishwasher four times this week. His sister says twice. The chart on the fridge has three stickers and a coffee ring, and you owe somebody money.
A kids chore chart and allowance tracker has two halves, and most of what you will find online only does one. The printables are charts with a column for dollars that nobody totals. The apps track the money and want a separate login for every child.
This guide joins the two: decide what a tick is worth, keep the chart where both parents see it, and pay on the same day from the same record.
Decide what a tick is worth before you draw the chart
Every argument about allowance is really an argument about which model you are running. U.S. Bank’s guide for parents (checked November 2, 2026) lays out the three that families actually use: a fixed allowance paid on schedule, pay for each completed chore, and a hybrid of base pay plus extra for optional jobs.
- Base only. Same amount every week. Chores are part of living in the house, like brushing teeth.
- Paid per chore. Every job has a price. No ticks, no pay. Clear for older kids, hard on a week with a cold.
- Base plus extras. A small base for the expected jobs, a price on the optional ones like washing the car.
We lean toward the third for most families. Making the bed stays expected, and the extra money has a price everyone can read. Whatever you choose, choose it once. Our guide to the family chore chart app covers why charts die in week three, and a model that changes every Saturday is one of the reasons.
A kids chore chart and allowance tracker in one app
The fridge chart lives in one kitchen, and the money lives in a parent’s wallet. Put both where the household already looks.
In Chirpy the chores go on the House list, each one with a name and a due date: “Empty the dishwasher, Leo, Saturday.” Each person’s dot sits next to their jobs, and a tick is a tick on every phone in the house. On Saturday you open Money, add “Leo allowance” at $7 under an Allowance category you made once, and the payout is in the same ledger as the groceries.
On Chirpy Pro you can skip the typing. Tell Chirpy “put feed the cat and empty the dishwasher on the chores list for Leo, due Saturday”, and both jobs land on the list with his name. Type “Leo allowance 7” into Money and it fills in the entry for you to check. On Basic you type the fields yourself, which takes about as long as finding a sticker.
Chirpy Basic is free for the whole household, up to six people, no card.
How much allowance, and what each chore pays
U.S. Bank calls $1 per year of the child’s age each week a common approach (checked November 2, 2026). It is a starting point. Plenty of families halve it for younger kids, and what the money has to cover matters more than the formula.
For the per-chore part, price the job by how much you want it done, not by how long it takes. Here is how the Riveras run base plus extras:
| Chore | Who | Type | Pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Make bed, clear own plate | Both kids | Expected | Covered by base |
| Empty the dishwasher | Leo | Expected | Covered by base |
| Trash out on Thursday | Alex | Expected | Covered by base |
| Wash the car | Whoever claims it | Extra | $3 |
| Rake the yard | Whoever claims it | Extra | $4 |
Put the price in the item itself, “Wash the car ($3)”, so nobody has to remember it on Saturday. The list is the price list.
The ten-minute Saturday payday
Pay on one day, at one time, from what the list says. A payout that depends on someone’s memory of Tuesday is a debate.
- Open the House list together and read out each child’s ticks.
- Add up the base plus the ticked extras.
- Pay, then log it in Money under Allowance with the child’s name.
- Untick the weekly jobs and set their due dates to next Saturday.
If you run base only, set the base up once in Money as a weekly repeating entry and it comes round every Saturday by itself. The log is what settles “you never paid me for the car” three weeks later. Search the ledger for “Leo” and every payout is there.
A kids’ debit card app such as Greenlight does one thing Chirpy does not: it puts the money on a card in your kid’s pocket and automates the allowance (greenlight.com, checked November 2, 2026). What Chirpy does instead is keep the chart, the payout and the rest of the house in the one app both parents already run, so the allowance sits next to the groceries and the school calendar, free.
Who ticks the box, by age
Younger kids do not need their own app. For a six-year-old the chart is yours: tick it together at dinner, and let them watch the box turn green. That is most of the reward.
An older kid with their own phone can join your Chirpy household in Family and tick their own jobs, and their dot shows next to their name on the list. The parents still pay. The list just stops being one adult’s job to keep. Our school morning routine checklist uses the same list for the weekday jobs, so the chores and the mornings live in one place.
Drawing the chart takes ten minutes. Paying from it every Saturday takes a habit.
When the chart slips, change one thing
It will slip. A week of colds, a birthday weekend, a vacation. Change one thing at a time: the prices, the day, or the number of jobs. Never the model halfway through a month.
A short monthly review works better than a Saturday negotiation. Put it on the family meeting agenda and let the kids propose a price change with a reason. If you are still choosing between apps, our roundup of the best chore app for families compares the points-and-rewards apps too.