Spent is an online game designed to teach players about the challenges of living on minimum wage (or slightly higher) employment. Players begin by selecting a job which will provide the wages they have to survive on for a month. Then throughout the game players are confronted with challenges that they have to handle by making an “either or” choice. After each choice the player’s account balance is adjusted. In addition to the change in the player’s balance sheet, each choice is followed by an explanation of consequence of the choice made.

Applications for Education
When I saw Spent it reminded me of a simulation activity called Life on Minimum Wage that I developed and have used for a couple of years now. Both activities are useful for teaching students about the difficult decisions that some people have to make just to take care of the basic necessities.