Managing Spending on Kids' Stuff

If you have kids, you know that things will always come up with them that require a payment of one sort or another:  summer camps, sports uniforms, clothing, school supplies, holiday / birthday gifts, educational support, etc.  The list can be endless.  Tracking all of this activity can be a nightmare and can make following a budget very difficult, especially if you have more than one child.  In our house, we have a "kid card," a credit card in my wife's name, that is solely dedicated to paying for kids' necessities.  Each month we pay off the balance in full so we don't have interest charges and we have an overall monthly budget for the kid card activity that we manage to.  
For example, each child has a clothing budget for the school year and if they want to use some of that budget by purchasing their own clothes online, they can use the kid card for that.  Or for example, when my oldest wanted to sign up for a community college class, college applications / testing, etc., we put those costs on the kid card.  The kid card has come in handy not only for the increasing amount of online purchasing that happens in our family, but also as a great way to control and manage the budget.  By reviewing the statement each month, we can ensure there are no "surprises," since the kids have to tell us before they use the card.  A shared card kept in a safe place in the house is much easier to manage than, for example, giving each child their own card to use.  Our kids have actually taken well to this and are very careful in keeping to their budget since they don't want to lose access to the card.
In selecting a credit card to use, the best ones are usually those with good cash back offers, since the plan is to pay off the balance each month.  A quick review online surfaced a number of credit cards offering between 1% and 2% cash back.  The new Apple Card is also worth looking at, since it has a great cash back reward program (1% to 3%, depending on what and where you purchase) as well as many other great features including no fees, easy to monitor activity (tap to see location on map where spending occurred that looks odd), spending reports, private / secure, and easily accessible on your phone.  I would actually have signed up for the Apple Card myself, but I have enough credit cards right now, they are all zero balance and don't need any more!  I now prefer to do most of my major spending on the MCO debit card where I get 2% back in MCO cryptocurrency with each purchase.  See my recent post for more information on this.
I hope you find this post useful as you chart your personal financial course and Build a Financial Fortress this year.
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