A child sitting cross-legged on a living room rug playing a video game, lit by the glow of a TV seen from behind

Robux, V-Bucks, and Real Money: Show Kids What That Skin Really Costs

By Digital Piggy Bank Team

Your 9 year old holds up the tablet. “Can I get 1,000 Robux? It’s only 1,000.”

To them, that’s a number in a game. To you, it’s ten dollars, and they asked yesterday too.

You can say yes, say no, or have the same argument again tomorrow. There’s a better move: make your kid do the conversion. Then open their account and show them what the skin would take out of it. Once a game coin has a dollar price and comes out of their own money, it’s a different conversation.

Why Robux and V-Bucks feel free to kids

Game coins break the link between a price and the dollars behind it. A tag that says 400 doesn’t look like four dollars. It’s the invisible money problem with an extra layer, because the number on the screen isn’t even in dollars.

Researchers at the University of Sydney saw this up close. In a 2025 study, they gave 22 kids aged 7 to 14 an AUD $20 debit card to spend however they liked. Twelve made purchases in Roblox. Four bought non-digital things like bike parts, toys and lollies. Professor Marcus Carter, one of the researchers, said virtual currencies “obscure purchase values,” which leads kids to spend more than they realize.

It’s a small study, but any parent who has heard “it’s only 1,000” will recognize it.

It’s not just Roblox

A 2022 report from Loughborough and Newcastle Universities studied 42 families and found that kids have a hard time tracking what they spend in games. One 11 year old ran up £464 in a single week, across 15 transactions in a phone game. The parents didn’t know, because Dad’s bank account was connected to the game.

What happens when nobody’s watching the button

Fortnite has its own version of this story. The FTC said in 2022 that up until 2018, Epic Games let kids buy V-Bucks “by simply pressing buttons,” with no action from a parent or cardholder. Some parents complained that their kids had run up hundreds of dollars in charges. Epic had to pay $245 million for refunds, and by June 2025 the FTC had sent out nearly $200 million of it.

None of those stories are about bad kids. They’re about setup, and you control the setup.

How to translate game coins back into dollars

This is the core lesson. The Loughborough report says in-game currencies should be turned into local currency. Until games do that for you, do it at home.

Sit down with your kid and the actual store screen. Find the bundle, then do the division together. Here’s what it looks like as of November 2026:

  • Roblox: 1,000 Robux for $10. That’s 100 Robux to the dollar, so 1 Robux is 1 cent.
  • Fortnite: 800 V-Bucks for $8.99. That’s about 89 V-Bucks to the dollar, so 1 V-Buck is a little over 1 cent.

Point out that 800 Robux and 800 V-Bucks aren’t the same money. One is worth $8. The other costs $8.99. Same number, different price. Prices change, so check your own store screen before you trust the math.

Now convert the thing they actually want. A 400 Robux item costs $4. If your kid gets $5 a week, that’s most of a week’s allowance.

Bundles add a second lesson. With the 800 pack, a 1,200 V-Bucks item takes two packs. That’s $17.98, more than three weeks of a $5 allowance, and you still have 400 V-Bucks left over. Those leftovers make the next purchase feel easier, so name that out loud too.

Make a cheat sheet

Put the math on a sticky note by the console: “1,000 Robux = $10 = 2 weeks of allowance.” Use your kid’s real allowance number. The dollar price is right there the next time the store opens.

How to handle a skin request in 5 steps

You don’t need a separate game allowance. Game purchases come out of the same money as everything else your kid buys, so each one competes with the bike or the toy they’ve been saving for.

  1. Turn off one-tap purchases. The FTC recommends using parental controls to disable in-app purchases or require a password for all purchases.
  2. Convert the price to dollars. “That skin is $4,” not “That skin is 400.” If they need a whole new pack to get it, use the pack price, because that’s what you’ll actually pay.
  3. Open their account and show the before and after. “You have $23 in spend. This takes you to $19.”
  4. Let them decide. Yes, no, or wait a few days. It’s their money, so it’s their call.
  5. Buy it and take out the dollars. You make the purchase, and the money leaves their account the same day.

Digital Piggy Bank fits well here because you’re already the bank. Pull up your kid’s spend bucket, show the balance, and deduct the dollars when you buy the Robux. They watch a real-dollar balance drop, so game coins show up as money spent.

What to do when they don’t have enough

Don’t cover the difference. No advance, no lecture.

This is the best part of the system, because the balance says no and you don’t have to. Your kid can wait, earn more or pick something cheaper. When the “is this skin worth it?” talk comes up, the needs or wants decision tree gives them three questions they can answer on their own.

A few weeks after a purchase, ask one question: do you still use it? Some skins will pass that test. The ones that don’t teach more than anything you could say at the store screen.

Parent Tip: Turn gift cards into dollars first. When Grandma sends a Roblox gift card, say the dollar amount out loud and write it next to your kid’s balance, so it still counts as real money. It’s the same plan you’d use for any other gift money.

Start with one question

Next time they ask for Robux, don’t answer yes or no. Ask, “How many dollars is that?” and work it out together. Then look at their balance. Digital Piggy Bank keeps each kid’s balance in dollars, so the answer is already in front of you both.