Free for students & parents

Teach the skills.
Not the rules.

Campus Wallet helps college students plan their weekly spending and build real financial habits — with just enough help from mom or dad.

Get started — it's free See how it works ↓

No bank linking. No complicated setup. Works in minutes.

Saved this week $47
Parent match earned +$23
Hey Simon 👋
$143 left
Week of Mar 30 · 62% remaining
Recent
Chipotle
Food
−$12.50
Weekly allowance
Income
+$200
Uber
Transport
−$9.00
Coffee
Food
−$5.75
Savings goal
Dad matches 50%
$47 / $80

The origin story

Built for Simon.
Designed for every student.

When my son Simon headed off to college, I had a major concern: his spending.

"I was having trouble managing his spending. If you asked Simon, he was having no trouble spending. That's why I built this tool."

— Simon's frustrated (and amused) parent

I looked around at every budgeting tool I could find. They were either too complicated — built for adults managing mortgages and 401(k)s — or too controlling, designed to lock down what a kid could spend and where.

That wasn't what I wanted. I didn't care whether Simon spent his money on pizza or concert tickets. I wanted him to learn — to understand what he had, plan how to use it, and feel the satisfaction of making it to the end of the week with money still in his wallet.

So I built it myself. A simple tool where Simon could see his weekly allowance, plan out his expenses, and track what he actually spent. No bank integrations. No syncing. Just intentional planning and honest tracking.

The parent match feature came later — a way to encourage savings without mandating them. Simon earns a little extra when he hits his savings goals. Motivation, not control.

Campus Wallet started as a prototype for one college student. Now it's built for all of them.

Simon
Simon
Co-founder (unknowingly)
The inspiration

How it works

Simple enough for a Sunday night.

Three steps. No bank accounts. No complex setup. Just a clear picture of the week ahead.

1

Parent sets up the wallet

Create an account, invite your student, and set the weekly budget. Takes about three minutes.

2

Student plans & tracks

Your student plans expected expenses at the start of the week, then logs what they actually spend as the week unfolds.

3

Close out & save

At week's end, students choose what to do with any unspent balance — save some, roll the rest into next week, or split between both. With parent match turned on, saving feels like winning.

Features

Everything they need.
Nothing they don't.

Flexible planning & tracking

Students can plan spend by category before the week starts, track expenses as they happen, or both. Simple expense logging is a great start — adding a plan makes the real learning click.

Actual vs. planned tracking

Side-by-side view of what was planned vs. what was spent. The gap is where the learning happens.

Progress bar & balance hero

A clear visual of how much is left for the week. Students always know where they stand at a glance.

Income & allowance tracking

Works whether your student is living off allowance, a part-time job, or both. All income sources in one place.

Week-over-week history

Every week closes out and gets archived. Students (and parents) can look back and see progress over time.

Parent invite & visibility

Parents stay informed without hovering. See the summary — not every transaction — so trust has room to grow.

The parent match

The feature that makes
saving feel like winning.

Optional, flexible, and surprisingly effective. When students save, you match. It turns discipline into a game — and the prize is real money.

The parent match is simple: you set a savings goal for the week, and a match rate. When your student hits the goal, you contribute your match.

It's not a reward for doing what you're told. It's a return on their own discipline — which is a very different lesson.

The match doesn't just reward saving — it gives your student a reason to plan. When there's real money on the line, the budget stops being theoretical. Students who might skip logging an expense suddenly care about getting the numbers right.

You control the goal, the rate, and whether it's on at all. Some families match 25%. Some match dollar-for-dollar. There's no right answer — just what makes sense for your student.

Weekly allowance$100
Spent this week$76
Student saved$24
Parent match rate50%
Match earned+ $12.00
Simon's total savings this week: $36.00 — and he made every spending decision himself.

What parents are saying

Real families.
Real results.

★★★★★

"My daughter actually started texting me her weekly savings totals. I didn't ask her to — she was just proud. That alone was worth it."

KM
Karen M.
Parent of a sophomore, Ohio State
★★★★★

"Every other app I tried was either too complex or treated my son like he couldn't be trusted. This is the first one that felt like it was on both our sides."

TR
Tom R.
Parent of a freshman, UNC Chapel Hill
★★★★★

"Setup took literally five minutes. My son planned his first week, stuck to it, and came in under budget. That had never happened before."

SL
Sarah L.
Parent of a junior, University of Michigan

* Testimonials are illustrative placeholders — real reviews coming soon as we grow.

Questions

Things parents ask us.

Does my student need to link a bank account?

No — and that's intentional. Campus Wallet is a planning and tracking tool, not a bank. You keep sending money the way you already do: depositing to their checking account, handing over cash, loading a debit card, or however your family handles it. The app sits alongside that — students log their income and track their spending manually. The act of logging is part of the learning.

The parent match works the same way. The app tells you exactly how much match your student has earned each week. When and how you transfer it is up to you — some parents add it to the student's regular deposit, others hold it in a separate account as an incentive that gets released when the student can show they've actually saved it. There's no right answer, and the app supports both approaches.

How much visibility do I have as a parent?

You can see everything — weekly budgets, individual transactions, and savings progress — all in one place, on your own time. It's not a real-time alert system, and that's intentional. The goal is a shared picture of the week, not a surveillance feed. Trust has room to grow when students know you're informed, not hovering.

Does my student have to use the parent match feature?

Not at all. The parent match is completely optional. Campus Wallet works great as a standalone planning and tracking tool — the match is just a powerful bonus for families who want to incentivize saving.

What if my student has a part-time job, not an allowance?

Works perfectly. Students can log any income source — allowance, wages, a birthday check. The weekly budget is based on whatever cash they actually have coming in.

Is Campus Wallet really free?

Yes — the core app is completely free right now, and we're keeping it that way for early adopters. We're building a premium tier with additional features down the road, but if you sign up today, you'll get full access at no cost while we grow.

Ready?

Give your student the tools
to figure it out.

No bank linking. No complicated onboarding. Free to start in minutes.

Get started — it's free

Join parents at colleges across the country.