The venue was spectacular and i was in good company, as bloggers and the media from around West Yorkshire all came together to discuss our spending and saving habits.

Spend or Save board-game

The Spend or Save game it's self was all about spending our money wisely and attempting to save as much as we can until our retirement age.We started the game as fresh-faced 20-year-old with just £1,000 in our pockets. Aswe made our way around the board we had many incomings and outgoings to keep track of – from paying rent and dealing with bills to picking up a freelance job.


Each time we completed one circuit of the board we aged five years, bringing us closer to the retirement goal! The aim of the game was to have more money than all other players by the time we reach retirement. To help players succeed in life, we could decide to spend money our incomings on specific ‘Life Goals’ at any time, like buying a car or even getting married!

They’re expensive, but they carry bonuses that could help out in the long run. It was a fine balancing act as one too many investments could leave you without any money before payday; if that happened we went bankruptcy and were out of the game.


One of the most brutal cards of the night had to be the global crash card. Everyone that had spent £20,000 on a house lost it! Other life cards including; marrying a rich man/women, having triplets, crashing your card, credit card debt, etc...


I was lucky enough to achieve my life goals before retiring in the game. From spending sensibly i managed to finish third overall, which meant that i won an amazing £100 pound to donate to a charity.

I have chosen to donate the money to a charity close to my heart; Mind.org.uk, the mental health charity help and support thousands of people a year dealing with a wide range of mental health issues. I have seen the work they do in Harrogate at first hand and i want to help the charity to keep providing the essential care and services they offered to me, to other people as and when they need it.

About giffgaff gameplan

Steve and Charlotte provided us with a short introduction to the brand and gave us an idea of how giffgaff gameplan are going to help people build healthy finances.

giffgaff revolutionised the mobile industry, and we built a network that's run by you, our members. We're much more than a mobile network, its philosophy of mutual giving and savviness, and we wanted to translate that into other areas of our member's lives.
Finance is complicated. But, essential to reach life goals. ‘Traditional’ banks are great at keeping your money. But do you know where all your money goes to at the end of the month and how to make it go further?
We wanted to help change that.
So, we’re designing a service with our members to help them be more in control & better at being on top of their money. We want to help members get savvy and get smarter insights into their finances, understand their money and build a better score, we believe that understanding your credit report can be the foundation for building healthy finances.
We're building a service that will help analyse the numbers and turn those numbers into smart insights, leading to simple actions. So that they can see how they can save, make better choices and improve their financial health.
We’ve made a start. But we want to tackle this beast together. Come join our Founders club.
 We’ve built a few tools to get you started, with more on the way. Let's be new radicals and build a new world of finance together. Our Founders club is where all our gameplan members can come to share their ideas and thoughts on how we can make gameplan better. It's the place to be if you want to have your say in what we do, have a question or if you want to share your tips, ideas and feedback.
We will be here to share with you exclusive sneak peeks, as well as run some feature ideas past you and keep you up to date with what's going on in the world of gameplan. At the heart of what we do is the idea that we’re laying the groundwork for a financial movement that celebrates and works with our members.

For those who are looking to better their credit score, giffgaff offer a free credit checker tool that enables you to get an idea of how well your finances have been in the past and how you can better your score in the future,

A huge thanks to giffgaff gameplan for inviting me along to the night, i had a great time and it really did get me thinking about how i manage and spend my money.