**********

I was recently invited to a charity games night, run by giffgaff gameplan, at Cuckoo Leeds. 

The main focus of the evening was to play a board game, designed by giffgaff themselves, that would hopefully make us more mindful about spending money – with the opportunity to win a cash prize for a charity of your choice!

To say I frequent Call Lane in Leeds pretty regularly, Cuckoo hadn’t been on my radar before so I was very excited to try somewhere new. As soon as I entered the venue, I absolutely loved it.

It’s very cool and quirky with lots of gorgeous bright colours and the room we were in had a fairground theme, complete with carousel horses on the wall. 

There was also plenty of prosecco going around, so I was instantly sold. The cocktail list also looked really fun and unusual (plus you can get free pizza with your drink!?) so I’ll definitely be returning to try out some more of the menu. 

We also got the opportunity to sample some of their incredible pizzas – and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t even like pizza a lot of the time! 

They also have some delicious dessert pizzas – the apple crumble one was to die for – so I’d definitely recommend checking them out if you’re in Leeds. 

Once we were suitably stuffed full of pizza and prosecco (the dream), we were introduced to the brand – learning that:

• giffgaff’s philosophy is all about mutual giving and saviness, which they want to translate into their member’s day-to-day lives
• they want to help people understand where their money is going and how to make it go further
• they’re working on bigger and better tools to help their members see how they can save, make better choices and improve their financial health

All in all, their message was so refreshing simple compared to a lot of ‘financial jargon’ and I was really impressed by their commitment to being transparent about finance. 

By the time the talk was over, I was feeling super motivated to spend my money wisely so the game was the perfect way to put my (very limited) financial skills to the test.

The game was so much fun – it was like a millennial version of Monopoly – and so so hilarious at times. 

You all start out as fresh-faced 20 year olds with £1,000 in the bank and as you progress around the board you have to keep track of all your incomings and outgoings – from life goals such as buying a house, to disasters such as financial crashes. 

As you work your way around the board, each time you pass the start you get a little closer to retirement. The winner is the person who retires with the most money. 

Although I didn’t win (although I did do far better than I would have thought!), I actually learnt quite a lot (whilst also having the best time), from things such as the importance of a pension, right through to never trusting a ‘Nigerian prince’ who wants a bank transfer. 

It was such a fabulous night and after the event, I spent some time browsing some of the great posts on giffgaff gameplan‘s blog and actually learnt a thing or two which hopefully might stop me spending all my money this month on ASOS and sushi (if miracles can really happen!)

**********