A family money conversation does not need to begin with your whole household budget. A short check-in can answer three smaller questions: what you recorded, what might change, and what you would like to discuss. Keeping those separate makes the explanation clearer without turning it into a demand.

Open Send Piggy PDF in the live web beta. First create a budget and record entries; then select and preview the information for your PDF. No account or app download is required, and nothing sends automatically.

For the separate hypothetical price comparison below, open the school-meals calculator. It models a compatible price difference—not your complete spending, a family request or approval.

Give each number a job

Recorded spending describes entries you explicitly added. A scenario describes what could happen under chosen assumptions. A requested allowance change is the amount you choose to discuss. None is a substitute for another.

The CFPB's Money as You Grow handout for middle childhood encourages families who choose to give an allowance to discuss plans, actual use and lessons learned. We checked the undated handout on October 22, 2026. That supports a conversation about choices; it does not prescribe an allowance amount or endorse Piggy. Our three-part check-in is an editorial example, not an official CFPB template.

A fictional check-in for one week

For this October 22, 2026 planning example, use USD and a Monday-through-Sunday report covering October 12–18. Suppose you explicitly recorded three purchased lunches at USD 6.00 each, including any applicable tax, with no discount, tip or extra fee. Selected spending is 3 × 6.00 = USD 18.00. These are invented entries, not a real school price or a customer's receipts.

If only those three lunches were selected, call the figure selected lunch spending—not all meals, all weekly spending or the amount left in a bank account. A missing day means no entry is available, not proof of zero spending. If another family member paid for something, explain that context separately rather than silently treating it as your expense.

Compare a price change without rewriting the past

Now assume one identical purchased meal per school day, previously USD 5.00 and hypothetically USD 6.00, on the same tax-inclusive basis with no discounts or fees. At five meals per week the scenario difference is (6.00 − 5.00) × 1 × 5 = USD 5.00 weekly. It does not turn the three recorded lunches into five purchases.

In the school-meals preset choose USD, meal, previous price 5.00, scenario price 6.00, one unit per purchase and five purchases per week. Confirm compatibility only for the same meal specification and consistent tax, fee and discount treatment. The calculator gives USD 260.00 over 52 weeks, or about USD 21.67 per average month. A fictional 36-week school routine instead gives 5.00 × 36 = USD 180.00; calculate that limited period separately. The calculator does not know attendance, holidays or eligibility for meals, and changing its currency label does not convert money.

Keep the request separate from the evidence

You might choose to discuss an extra USD 4.00 per week, a different schedule, or no change at all. In this example USD 4.00 is a chosen request—not the USD 5.00 scenario difference and not an amount owed. The recipient decides what is possible.

A plain-language explanation could be: These three recorded lunches total USD 18.00. A separate five-meal price scenario adds USD 5.00 per week. I would like to discuss USD 4.00 more weekly and how we would handle the rest. Use your own wording and circumstances; do not skip an essential meal to make a report look better.

Preview the smallest useful report

In the web beta, finish Create My Piggy, add the relevant recorded entries and choose the report period. Select only entries needed for the conversation. Use a totals-only report when merchant details are unnecessary. The PDF supports up to 200 selected totals-only entries or 20 with merchant details. Check the preview, period, selected amounts and any explanation before downloading or using the browser's share controls.

Income and the chosen tax reserve are not automatically shared. Do not add them—or private account numbers, receipt pictures or identifying notes—to an explanation unless you intentionally want the recipient to receive that information. Check the actual exported PDF before sharing; a file already sent can be copied or forwarded. Nothing sends automatically, and Piggy cannot promise approval.

Budget saving is optional and browser-local, not cloud backup or native-app sync. Export what you need before leaving an unsaved page. The receipt-to-Excel scanner is a separate tool, with one photo per workbook and OCR requiring review. The native iPhone app is separately coming soon.

Your takeaway: a check-in is a conversation, not a verdict

Label recorded entries, scenario assumptions and your request separately. Share the smallest useful selection and leave room for questions. A selected report cannot prove complete spending, income, actual savings or an entitlement.

Try your own compatible meal-price scenario, adjusting prices and frequency rather than accepting the defaults as your history. When you have a budget and recorded entries, preview a selected Send Piggy PDF before deciding whether to share it.

Sources and coverage

Primary-source family conversation guidance was checked October 22, 2026. All amounts, meal specifications, entries and routines here are fictional assumptions, not observed prices. No petroleum inventory, inflation, tax or eligibility claim is made.

A little clarity, not a guarantee

Projections are not recorded spending or confirmed savings. No national average or future price is inferred. The web calculator does not upload receipts, send family requests, or update the iPhone app.