A reason is more useful than just a number

Suppose a meal price rises from $5 to $6 and you plan five meals each week. The extra planned cost is $5 weekly. That gives a family a concrete starting point for a conversation, rather than an unexplained request. These are hypothetical prices, not a claim about any school.

School calendars matter

The calculator's 52-week annualization assumes the frequency continues all year. That usually is not a school calendar. If you expect 36 school weeks, five meals weekly and a $1 increase would add $180 over those weeks. Holidays, free meals, and attendance can change the result. Do not present an all-year projection as an actual school-year bill.

Keep the request separate

The estimated cost increase and the requested allowance increase are different numbers. The recipient decides whether to change the allowance. Explain the timing, show selected receipts where available, and label earlier prices as manual inputs if there is no supporting receipt. Nobody needs to skip an essential meal to make the chart look better.

Bring context, not pressure

Piggy Sheet's web beta is live without an app download. Create My Piggy first, record your spending, then select the entries and optional explanation for a Send Piggy PDF. Preview the complete report before downloading or using your browser's share sheet. Receipt pictures, private notes, income and the tax reserve are not automatically included. The separate What-If Lab calculator does not generate or send the request, and Piggy never promises family approval. Native-app allowance workbooks and photo options are separate from this web PDF flow. Web availability checked October 17, 2026; the hypothetical meal example above is unchanged.

Try this with your numbers

The calculator opens with this article's hypothetical example. Your budget is not a headline—change the prices, quantity and frequency.

Test your plan with Piggy

Example assumptions

Prices and routines in this article are manual, hypothetical inputs. No school or merchant price was verified. Results assume the frequency continues for the stated period.

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.