Financial Fitness Friday, Cash for Kids: Ketshop’s Fun Path to Financial Fitness with Mari Collins Harris

Hey, welcome back, No Problem Parents, to Financial Fitness Friday on the No Problem Parenting Podcast. I'm your host, Jackie Finneman, and oh my gosh, you guys, this episode is super cool. I've had several guests on talking about how to teach our kids about money, but my guest today, well, this resource is something that I wish I would have had when my kiddo was young. It is so incredibly cool.

We're going to talk about how it helps teach financial responsibility to your young kiddos, teaches them to be personally responsible for their money and the things that they buy. Stay tuned. This resource might just be my favorite of 2024. Hey parents, when kids are defiant, melting down, yelling at you, or crying because they're upset and they want to do something that they cannot do or they aren't doing something that you've asked them to do, it can be inconvenient, embarrassing, and exhausting to say the least.

But does it really have to be? What if instead of dreading the defiance, we're prepared to respond to it. You know, just because our kids get upset or reactive doesn't mean we need to join them. We can observe the behavior as simply that, a behavior. And behaviors pass unless we feed them by giving them too much attention, which often causes the child to repeat the behavior. How we respond to our kiddo's behavior can make or break our relationship and determine how often the child will repeat the same unwanted behavior. No problem parents give behavior problems only as much attention as they deserve. And then life goes on. Or as we say in the Midwest, we keep her moving. There's no need to take every behavior personally. And in fact,

when parents do take every behavior personally, we're unintentionally teaching our kids that their behavior controls the health of our relationship with them. So we've created 60 responses to help you respond instead of react to your kiddos. Click the link in the show notes, sign up and get these 60 responses delivered right to your email inbox. And if you want to hear how these responses can be used in the moment, we dedicated six episodes of the No Problem Parenting podcast, breaking down 10 responses in each of those episodes, starting with episode 189. Go back and check out those episodes and be sure to click the link in the show notes to get the free 60 ways to respond to your kiddos without losing your cool today.

All right, welcome back, No Problem Parents. I have a super special guest on the show today, Mari Collins-Harris. She's a passionate entrepreneur and devoted mother of three young children and the founder of Ketchop, a parent-approved shopping app. Ketchop empowers kids to manage their own money in real-world transactions. Parents, I'm actually kind of geeking out over this and I wish I would have had this when my kiddo was younger. I'm super excited to share this resource with you all. Welcome to the show, Mari. Hi, thanks for having me. Yeah, I just so appreciate that your team reached out to be on the show. I would have not known of you, which is kind of a bummer, I can think of a number of families that I've worked with just even in the last couple of years where kids are constantly begging for things and they're always wanting more. I've talked to the parents about teaching them how to save money, spend money,

earn money, all those things. But your app is like, I don't know, heaven sent. It does so many things to take the battle out of kids asking for money and parents saying no. As we begin here, Why don't you just tell us a little bit about the motivation behind your mission with Catch Up?

Yeah, well, I think like most parents, I am constantly battling the begging, the pleading, the nagging, and it weighs on you after a time. I've got three kids, so it's kind of coming at me from every angle. And I was finding that as a parent, I basically had two reactions. One was I'd say no, I'd say no, I'd say no, I'd say no.

And then I'd finally like snap and give up and just be like, all right, yes. So in that case, I'm teaching my kids, if you bug me enough, you're going to find the weak link and like, just keep bothering me until I break. Or I'd say no, say no, say no. And then I'd break and just get mad and like yell and be the mom I don't want to be.

So either way, it's a bad lesson for my kids. And they never knew when the answer was going to be yes. And when the answer was going to be mom freaks out. And so I was like, we need a process for this.

We need a way in which my kids know when the answer is yes. They don't have to ask me if the thing that they want, they can afford and I'm okay with them owning. It shouldn't be a discussion. It should just be, can you afford it?

Is it okay with mom? Then the answer is yes. And so we built Ketchup because there's nothing else like it out there. There's all these Amazons and big box stores and subscriptions, but it really doesn't.

There's no other way for a parent to have the power to veto inappropriate items or for kids to budget their own money for online shopping. So I love this to scratch that itch. I love it with kids having access on tablets and things to back up a little bit here. We're talking really about that four to 12 year old age range, give or take.

right? Where you're, you know, when they have access to YouTube and ads are popping up and toys and things are popping up, they're like, Oh, I want that. I want that. I want that. And they're coming to bug you. And a lot of people are shopping online mostly. So it's not just about being in the grocery store or in the department store. It's also the access that the kids have to seeing these things on not just TV commercials, but actually YouTube channels. Yeah. Yeah.

I got to say a big part of my motivation for building this app was to just reduce the amount of stress that was put on me as a parent. And almost as a byproduct, I was like, oh, I'm teaching my kids valuable lessons here about the value of money and taking care of their stuff. Because when they buy that item for themselves, they don't leave it out in the rain. They don't forget it at school. It's something that matters to them because they had to sacrifice in order to buy it. And so one of the best things about this is that my kids are learning to be responsible with their own things as well as their own money. I just absolutely love it so much. So let's talk about how does Ketchop help children value the items that they buy and how does it even work? Okay, well, I'll start with how it works. So there's two accounts. You start one as an admin or a parent account and there you can kind of manage your family, add as many children as you want and send them money, like look at their shopping history, assign allowance,

that sort of thing. And then from the child's side, they can check their balance. They can save up and set goals for themselves. Anything that they can't afford, they can set as a goal and then they can track their progress towards it.

And then when they decide to make a purchase, the child can start a purchase, but it's not final until the parent checks it out and approves it. So in that way, you won't end up finding like some inappropriate item where it's like, ah, this doesn't really mesh with our family values. So it's a back and forth and a conversation between parent and child that doesn't have to be, you know, both of us staring at the same screen at the same time. Because in my family, that was a big source of conflict. My child shopping on Amazon and I'm like hovering over shoulder like, oh, you're signed into my account. Like, no, don't buy that. No, don't buy that. No, don't buy that.

But instead now I can see, you know, once he's gone through his shopping experience, I get a little notification that says, hey, your kid wants to buy this toy. Oh, well, all right. Yeah, I'm okay with that. And then just click yes and continue on.

You set it up where you put funds, the parent puts funds into the account. So maybe that kiddo has birthday money or maybe you've set up an allowance, you've actually got it set up where you can do a recurring deposit into the child's account like an allowance, or you can deposit like grandma or grandpa gives them some cash for their birthday and you can actually take that, the payer takes that money and then deposits it into the kiddo's account. But it goes even a step further with, like you said, the kids can set goals, but there are also ways for them to save and to donate and to have the spending money. So tell us about that.

Yeah. So one of the main tenants of early financial education is the save, spend, give model. And so we wanted to embrace that in our app. So it's not just about like, you know, what can you buy? It's also about like, how can your money work for you and the things you care about? So in addition to, you know, being able to save up your money and like buy your little trinkets or bigger items. You can also support nonprofits or even like create a specific fund that your family cares about. And so like my kids, for example, when their annual jog-a-thon came along, you know, I was like, all right, I'll put in like 10 bucks or 20 bucks, whatever. And they're like, I'm going to put in 20 bucks. I'm like, oh man, you're putting $20 of your own money into your school fundraiser, I got to like step it up too. And so we did like a matching thing, but it was great.

Like I didn't ask them to put their own money into their school, but they chose to do it themselves. And, you know, that was a real proud mama moment for me because, wow, you're not getting anything from this except like the pride of helping your community. Yeah, I love it. So that actually answers that question about how it can help children value their money and learn to actually, I don't want to say play with their money, but learn about money is more than just spending. Yeah. One of the things that I have noticed with the way it's set up is before when I would give my kid two bucks or they'd get tooth fairy money, it's like, I have a dollar.

What am I going to do with it? How can I spend this $1? Like what, what's in my reach. But when you have it framed as my goal is to buy this Lego set. I'm $2 closer. And so when that $2 comes in, in the framework of like a goal you're saving up for, you don't think of it as like, I need to burn this money in my pocket right away. It's like, Ooh, I made a little progress. I'm getting closer to what I really want. Yeah. I absolutely love that. And then it also helps control or reduce conflict between you and your kiddo because, you know, they've got this money set up in this app and you go to someplace in person and they want to buy a freezy pop or they want to buy, you know, a soda or something. Mom, can I have that? And you say, if you have the money,

you can buy it. I mean, I teach this all the time. I know problem parenting. I love that you're parenting that way as well. It's like, oh, well, sure. You can buy it if you have the money.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. Like it's not, no, it's not, no, you can say, well, I'm not going to buy it.

I don't spend my money on those kinds of things. But if you have the money, feel free to do that. Yeah. And it's amazing because you think kids always want more.

But when it's their own sacrifice, sometimes that more is not as appealing. Like my kids now, they used to always want, oh, I want, you know, a cookie. I want a cookie. And so if I'm paying for it, like, yeah, they each want their own cookie.

There will be no sharing. But when they're paying for it, it's like, hey, should we team up and buy a cookie and share it? I was like, oh, that's awesome. Like you guys are not only working together and sharing, but you also are doing this because neither of you thinks a cookie should be three, five dollars, however much it costs at the store.

Yeah, exactly. No, it's super cool. And I love that it helps to like ease. The kid can still be upset if you're not going to pay for something and then they don't want to use their money.

There still can be a battle with that. But we don't have to put all that emotion into it as the parent. Yeah. I mean, sometimes the answer is going to be no, even if they have the money.

It's like, oh, we're on our way to dinner. I'm not going to buy you a cookie right now. Right. Sorry.

Like you still have to parent. But if the answer could be yes, it gives the power to the child. So you're not mean mommy for saying no. You get to be like the enabler if that's what they want to do.

Yeah, exactly. So what happens? happens, I have a question about if your child buys something and they've saved up for it, maybe, or maybe they kind of spontaneously bought it, the money was in there. And then they're like, they get it and they're like, oh, now I wish I wouldn't have bought that. And they kind of have buyer's remorse. Yeah. I love buyer's remorse. It's, I don't love when I have it, but seeing my children experience it, it, it's painful because, you know, you always want your kid to be happy, But at the same time, it's such an amazing learning experience because one of the main things I've noticed is the first six months of purchases my oldest son did was like artsy cars, like little robots.

Everything required batteries. And then those batteries would wear out or the cover would get broken or some wire would short or he'd drive it off of the roof and it would break. And he's like, all these toys are just break. I'm not happy about it. I'm like, well, you keep buying the same kind of toys, man. Like, what do you expect? You, you're a rough and tough kid and you're playing rough and tough with these kind of fragile toys that you're choosing. And I didn't have to tell him like, don't do it, like take care of it. He naturally was like, eh, okay, I'm going to buy puzzles. I'm going to buy Legos. I'm going to buy things that are like more kid powered because he got sick of like, all right, now I have to go buy more batteries or, you know, how do I fix this broken toy?

And so, you know, there was a lot of buyer's remorse, but it leads to a more informed shopper as they get older, even though it sucks in the moment. It makes me think too, that if they do get something, order something, it comes to the home and it breaks, Hey, it teaches them about, can the item be returned and how does that work? And how do you, the child do that? So instead of you being in the store or seeing something, a toy online and having to convince your kids that it's going to break in a day. You actually let them experience it. Yeah, that is, that is so no problem parenting. I just absolutely love this Mari. Well, it's more not my problem parenting.

Oh, I love that. Yeah. I, no problem parenting doesn't mean like, oh, no problem. It's more about problems are meant to be dealt with and overcome. It's right in the definition of the word problem.

So we can turn any behavior problem into a no problem. A lot of times it's the parent that needs to step back and let the child solve their own problem. Just hard to do with the parent being there for support and tugs our heartstrings sometimes, right? It's not always the easiest, but the kids, I think a lot of kids have more anxiety these days and are anxious and are less empowered because we're doing too much for them.

And we're not actually helping them feel capable. like they've made a mistake or they've struggled or whatever, but they can, you know, overcome it. And we believe in them enough that we know that they can do that. And we're going to support them through that. So what kinds of things can kids buy on Ketchop and how, how does that look? Like, do they just have access to any site or? Yeah. So you can search for goods and it will search anything out there, but we do, we built some AI filters that are unique to Ketchop. So we filter out anything, you know, you can't get anything that's like too sexual, too violent, um, substances like inappropriate. So we try and like weed those things out. So they, even if your child searches for like, I want a BB gun, like it's not going to show up on our site. Like maybe if that's okay with mom and dad, you can go buy it somewhere else. But we just want to keep like a safe set of choices for our children. But yeah, you can search for anything and you can also create your own custom items. So like, let's say you want something very specific, even an experience like,

oh, there's a chocolate shop down the street and I want to go on a chocolate tour. That's one of my kids items like, all right, well, tickets are $20 to tour the chocolate factory. So I'll write it down, load it onto ketchup, and then my son saves up $20 and we'll go take him to the chocolate factory. So yeah, it's a really interesting approach because at first I was like, okay, I only want to have like green toys made in America, nonviolent, gender neutral, like trying to fit everything into this box. And our users were like, that's good in theory, but like my kid wants a Nintendo. My kid wants a saddle and they're like every family is so different and being able to like help kids reach their goals rather than like this slim little section of what I think is appropriate is, was really important. So, um, yeah, you can buy anything you want.

That's super cool. And like you said, you can set goals. So, um, before we started recording, we were talking about like, if the family's going to Disneyland and you know, or Disney world, And that's exciting. Mom and dad are going to pay for that trip. But maybe mom and dad don't want to pay for it.

You know, once you get there, it's they want all the things, you know, or the extra things that mom and dad aren't willing to pay for. And so they can have they can set up a little budget in their in their app to save for that specific family trip. Yeah, it's funny because we we in our family do what we call a syntax. And it's like, OK, my kids want a cheeseburger or something.

It's like, yeah, we could like go get a cheeseburger, but I also like don't want my kids eating junk food. So I might set the price of that cheeseburger at $40 because I'm like, well, if you really want that cheeseburger, then it's going to be pretty expensive. And then they can they can get it, but it's a bigger sacrifice. So it's funny because you can price things.

If you're doing custom item, you can price things to align with your values. Whereas if you want to buy a bike or something, it's like, oh, we'll subsidize 80% of that. That is so fun, though. The syntax.

I love that. Something that you wouldn't. It's a little bit extra. So that's really good, though, too, because my kids just buying candy all the time or spending their money on that.

So it's like, oh, yeah, if you want this candy, you can up the price of it. Yeah. If you're doing a custom item, if it's through a third party, if it's something you find on Amazon or Target, the price is what the price is. But, you know, if your kid wants something that is very specific and you're like, I don't really want you to have that.

I don't want a hot tub, for example. So I'm going to price it out of this world. That's fun. Yeah.

One of the suggestions I give parents is if their kids want to buy candy and they have the money and they can afford it. I say, but remember, for every candy bar you buy, we put on a 30% tax on that because it's going to have to go towards your dental bill. You're probably going to need more cleaning. That's exactly.

That's the syntax. Yeah. So the app's teaching financial responsibility to our kiddos. It's teaching them to be personally responsible for their choices and or their belongings.

And it's also, this is kind of an icing on the cake thing. It's going to help you reduce clutter in your home. So tell us your experience with that. Oh, man.

So when you buy things for your kids, it comes in so easy and your kid plays with it, but then kind of loses interest and then they want something else and they want something else. And so pretty soon, like, oh, it might only be five dollars. What the heck? I'll buy it for my kid because it'll give them joy right now. You end up with like ten thousand five dollar items. And I don't know about you, but it makes me crazy when I can't see my floor.

So one of the good things about putting your kid in charge of making those decisions is, first of all, like if they can't afford it, then it's not coming into your house. So that's one thing that's just automatically out. But on the second side of that coin, it's also if your kid does buy something and they are sacrificing their own hard-earned money, you can bet that they're not going to forget it at school. They're not going to break it as easily.

they're going to value it more and play with it longer because they had to sacrifice to get it. They understand the value of that item. And so it's really, really cool watching that like learning curve of like, oh, I want to protect this item. This is important to me. We have started in our home to like, we'll buy something if it's like a need, we'll buy the first one for our kids. But if they lose it, they got to replace it. So like my daughter lost her brand new snowsuit. It's like, you know, all right, that's $70. You got to replace that. And it, it stinks. She's not happy about it, but it's something she needs and she lost it herself. So it's teaching that kind of responsibility for the items that are in your life. I absolutely love that you're doing that and teaching that just because I think it helps our kids, especially when they're younger,

let them learn these lessons when they're little and the price tag is basically small, right? Versus when they get to be the teenage years and they're losing their earbuds or their phone or breaking their phone, you know, dropping in cracks or breaks. And it's like, they have to have their phone and you want them to have their phone, but you're like, now I have to go buy another $500 phone. I don't think so. You know? So it really teaches them the value of, and to take care of their belongings and bummers happen, accidents happen. And so even though that's when it tugs your heartstrings because you know, like if the tablet broke or the phone broke, you're like, yeah, that is a huge bummer.

And often we just want to replace it. But having the kids have some skin in the game, even though that might tug your heartstrings a little bit, it's real life. Yeah. I mean, it's important to teach these lessons when they're little so that they can learn to like respect their stuff and respect their money before it is a big ticket item and they buy the wrong car or they lose their phone or they, you know, get themselves into a sticky situation that can be life changing.

It's like a $70 snowsuit that's lost. Like that's a lot of money for a six year old. But in the grand scheme of things, it's not much. I just absolutely love this.

I've worked with families who have kiddos that they get really angry or mad. Maybe they punch a hole in the in the wall or they break something of value of their siblings or whatever else. And I teach the parents that when that happens, they're going to learn drywall repair because the kiddo is not only going to go to the store and buy the new sheetrock for the wall that they punched a hole in. They're also going to help help the parent to fix it.

And they're going to learn that lesson. And but also, you know, they can be playing floor hockey or shinny in the basement and a ball hits a lamp or something and it breaks. Oh, well, now we've got the money to set up to pay for. It's a great way to give the child the tools to make something right, too, because a lot of times when your kid does make that mistake, they feel bad about it.

They know they did something wrong, and saying sorry doesn't really fix it. But repairing that drywall or replacing that limp, it hurts a little bit, which is kind of an important part of what we call the three-part apology. It's like first, you acknowledge what you did. I'm sorry I kicked a hole in the wall.

I won't do it again. You make a promise for the future. And the third is you have to make it right or do something like that, like sacrifice from you. And so that third part is really the important one, like showing that you care enough to fix the hole or that you care enough to replace your brother's brand new toy.

Right. I teach something very similar. We're in good company here, Mari, because I have one of my free downloads is the Make It Right technique, which is, and I did a whole episode on I'm sorry isn't enough. So yeah, I'm sorry.

I always feel like it's icing on the cake and it is great to say I'm sorry, but only if you truly are. You know, the kid that gets hit over the head and or a toy taken away from them and we go to that kid and we say, you say you're sorry. Well, yeah, it's all right. Yeah.

Is that really honest? Is that are they really sorry? So now the kid that was hit or hurt or had their toy taken away has not only been hit or hurt, they've also been lied to. Right. And so instead, we talk about making it right and helping the kids.

That needs to come from the inside out. So I'm all about you guys. This is so great. I'm so glad that we connected. I'm very thankful for your for your resource for parents.

That's going to help them set boundaries so that their kids don't need to beg for things. And then the kids can see whether or not they can afford an item. They're going to appreciate the things that they are buying so much more and they get to decide for themselves how to spend their money, at least for the most part. But it is, you know, parent approved purchases.

So for parents who are interested in learning more about this, they can go to Ketshop.com. K-E-T-S-H-O-P.com.

We're also on Facebook, Instagram as Ketshop.app. So if you want to check out our posts, but the best way is to go to the website and then there's links to download or join from there. Awesome. And I do have a lot of listeners that are parents, but also have their own companies, products and services and things.

So you also have a partnership opportunity if there are people that are interested in selling their products on Ketchup. Yeah, we can feature your company's products. So they're kind of the default when you browse. So if you are interested in doing any affiliate work, shoot me an email at hi at ketchop.com.

All right. Awesome. All that information can be found on your website along with different articles and other supports. This is just a wonderful resource.

Thanks so much for sharing it with our listeners today and being on the show. I really appreciate it, Mari. Yeah, it was so great talking with you. Thank you so much for having me on.

All right. That's it for today's episode of the No Problem Parenting Podcast. Hey, thanks guys for tuning in. If you found value in today's episode, click the subscribe button and share it with other parents who might need a little boost.

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So take a deep breath, embrace the chaos, and remember, you got this. Thank you. Thank you.