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Not an app for parents. An app by parents.

Two dads, one pub, and one too many requests for a £90 video game. This is why EarnIt exists, and what happened when we tried it on our own kids.

Mark & NojCo-founders. Fellow dads. Reformed naggers.

It started in the pub. Obviously.

A warm Thursday evening. Two dads, a pint each, doing what parents do when the kids are out of earshot: moaning about the kids.

Specifically, about the fact that ours genuinely believe a £90 video game is a perfectly reasonable request. Because, to quote one of them word for word:

“It’s only £90. You earn loads. I can’t even work yet, so I can’t afford it.”One of our kids. Flawless logic. Deeply annoying.

The thing is, they see the price. They never see what’s behind it: the long days, the double shifts, the second job, the “I’ll sort that at the weekend” that eats the weekend. To a kid, money just… arrives. You tap your phone, and things happen.

And then it stopped being funny.

Kids who grow up wanting expensive things without ever connecting them to effort grow into young adults who want expensive things. Some of them learn the lesson the expensive way: credit cards, overdrafts, debt. It’s a brutal lesson at 22. It’s a cheap one at 9. We figured it could be learned early, and the good habits could carry right through.

“So why not just… parent?”

Because we were “just parenting”, and honestly, it looked like this:

“Can you do this? Have you done that? Do me a favour…”

No structure. No clear deal. No reason to do anything except that Dad asked. The kids did what they were told, when they were told, and not a minute before. That isn’t a habit. It’s nagging with extra steps, and it turns every Sunday into a negotiation.

We didn’t want to nag better. We wanted to stop nagging altogether, and swap the everyday friction for a loop the kids run themselves:

Job → effort → approval → money → a decision → a consequence → do it again.

Do the work. See it turn into money. Decide what to do with it. Live with how that turns out. And get noticed along the way for the things money can’t buy. That’s financial competence, independence and reward, built in rather than lectured.

Why no ads, no accounts, no subscription?

Because we’re parents too, and we didn’t want any of that anywhere near our own kids. No ads. No accounts. We don’t collect your data. Your family runs EarnIt the way your family runs, on your own devices and nobody else’s.

That’s EarnIt. Dreamed up in a pub, tested at our own kitchen tables, and argued with by our own kids.

Case study · written by Mark

The plate that finally made it into the dishwasher.

WhoOllie, 12

Two homesWeek on, week off

Saving forThe new Leeds shirt

I’m Mark, one half of EarnIt and dad to Ollie. Here’s how the first few weeks actually went. No stock photos, and no “my child now loves chores”. Just what happened.

Before: the Bank of Dad

Pocket money in our house was… sporadic. There wasn’t really a system. Ollie would ask for something, and if it seemed reasonable, he’d get it. Which sounds generous, until you realise it teaches exactly one skill: asking.

Week one: the plate

He took to it straight away, properly scanning the board to see what needed doing and what it was worth. Then there’s the plate.

For as long as I can remember, Ollie’s dirty plate has made it near the dishwasher. On the side. Next to it. Tantalisingly close. After one week of EarnIt, it goes all the way in. Every time. No reminder, no hassle.

I still don’t know whether to be delighted or offended that it took an app.

The moment he got it

Normally, it goes like this: “Dad, can I get the new Leeds United shirt?”

This time there was no ask. He added it as a goal, and started putting his own earned money into it.

Nobody told him to. He set the target, looked at how many jobs it would take, and got on with it. That’s the whole loop (job, effort, money, decision) happening in a 12-year-old’s head, with me nowhere in the middle of it. It’s the bit I’m proudest of, and it isn’t even a feature.

Two homes, one kid

Ollie splits his time between two homes, a week at a time. There isn’t much out there that genuinely supports co-parenting, either because it was never designed for it, or because being a regulated financial product forces one parent to “own” the account.

I wanted something inclusive. It had to respect that each home has its own rules and its own way of doing things, without making the split the headline of Ollie’s life. He already knows he lives in two places. He doesn’t need to feel the separation in every app he opens.

The honest bit

Is it perfect? No. I still have to nudge sometimes. But the nudge has changed. It used to be a list: “Have you done your room? Did you feed the— did the bins go—”. Now it’s one question:

“Have you marked your jobs in EarnIt? Don’t miss out on what you’ve earned.”

One question. Framed as his money, not my nagging. Off he goes.

EarnIt lets me know what I can earn for doing my jobs, rather than it being a “reward”. I can set goals for things I want and see exactly what tasks, and how many, I need to do to reach my goal. OLLIE, 12

The EarnIt loop

Most pocket money stops at “Here’s a fiver.”
EarnIt keeps going.

A fiver on a Sunday teaches one thing: Sunday comes round. EarnIt turns pocket money into a closed loop. The work, the money, the choice and what happens next are all visible, every week. And the loop repeats until it’s a habit, not a lecture.

The usual way Chores £5 The lesson ends here

JobA real job on their board, not “do me a favour”. It’s clear what’s expected and when.
EffortBig jobs weigh more than small ones, and they can see why. Not all work is equal.
ApprovalA tick is only a claim. You say “yes, that’s done”, or hand it back to do properly.
MoneyTheir share of the week lands, split into Spend, Save and Give. The maths is shown, not hidden.
DecisionSpend it, save it or give it, with everything priced in weeks of their own work.
ConsequenceThe goal gets closer, or it doesn’t. Their call, their result, and no lecture from you.

It isn’t a feature you switch on. It’s what happens when every step is visible, and a few weeks in, they start running it themselves. See it happen with Ollie, 12 →

Built at our kitchen tables. Ready for yours.

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