About the Budgeteen app

Updated 2026-09-30 · Part of the Budgeteen FAQ hub

Budgeteen is a free money-skills app that budgets allowance, gig pay and cash and teaches practical money and work skills, for teens 13 and older who want a plan without a bank account or debit card.

What Budgeteen does

Budgeteen splits each week into Needs, Wants, Save and Give envelopes and shows what is left, with a money health score that coaches the mix. Allowance, gifts and gig pay count when the cash is in your hands, and uneven weeks are expected, not treated as an error. The Skills roadmap teaches money and work skills in short lessons that work offline, with decision sims such as a first paycheck. The Work tab lists hustles and job ideas filtered by age, national chains to check at 14, 15 and 16, and an application tracker. You can plan hustles, run Shift Mode and build a Skills Card from work you actually finished. The week-by-week loop is on how teen budgeting works in Budgeteen.

What makes Budgeteen different

• No bank, no card, no account. Budgeteen does not need a bank account, debit card or parent-funded balance, and there is no account to create. You type in the money you actually have.
• The ledger stays on the phone. Your budget, goals, lesson progress and applications are stored on the device by default. Optional network features, such as a parent invite, a portfolio page or a scam report, send only what that feature needs. Budgeteen does not sell personal data. See the Budgeteen Privacy Policy and what data Budgeteen collects.
• Free, with nothing to buy. Every skill track, brief and money tool is included, and there is nothing to buy inside the app. Budgeteen previously sold an optional Pro subscription through Apple; if you still hold one, cancel it in your Apple subscription settings so you are not billed for something everyone now gets.
• Parent visibility without amounts. An optional parent link shares a first name, a streak, which of the last eight weeks you logged money and high-level Learn progress. It never shows balances, notes or goals, and you can turn it off at any time.
• A planner, not a card. Greenlight, for example, is a paid family subscription built around debit cards for kids. Budgeteen plans the money a teen already has. The side-by-side is on Budgeteen vs Greenlight.

Who uses Budgeteen

• Teens 13 and older who already have some money, from allowance, babysitting, lawns, gifts or content payouts, and want a weekly plan.
• Teens with no income yet, who use the free skills roadmap, sims and tools. Earning is optional.
• Teens looking at a first job or side hustle, who want the age rules to check before they apply. Listings are educational examples, not job offers.
• Parents who want to see a streak and finished skills without seeing their teen's balances.

Who makes Budgeteen

Budgeteen publishes this marketing and policy site at trybudgeteen.com so search engines and answer engines can quote the product accurately. Budgeteen does not invent testimonials or star ratings. It is a financial education app, not a bank, debit card, payment processor or employment agency. Product questions, privacy requests and scam reports go to support@trybudgeteen.com or Budgeteen support. How the app keeps teens safe is on is Budgeteen safe, and the rules of use are in the Terms of Use.

The data behind Budgeteen

For the numbers behind teen money education, read teen financial literacy statistics: state graduation rules, PISA 2022 results for U.S. 15-year-olds and adult money data, each linked to its source.