Spent" Simulation Assignment

This is a simulated experience assignment. You are 29 years old. You've lost your job. After a couple of months of unemployment, your savings are depleted. You've lost your house, or you're about to. You're a single parent. You have $1,000 to your name.

"Spent" is an online exercise that allows you to make choices about how to secure an income and housing for you and your family. What norms have you been "socialized" to follow, and how do you make choices to either follow them or perhaps depart a bit?

Go to the "Spent" website by clicking here https://playspent.org

and complete the simulation and answer the following questions after the game.

I played this game through a couple of times with different job scenarios, and you might want to do that also, as there are different options depending on the choices you make. The object of the exercise is to learn how long you can go without running out of money and if you can provide for yourself and for your child.

• Which job or jobs did you take?
• In the game, when you found an apartment that was too small for your stuff, what did you decide to do, and why?
• Several of the choices involved spending money that would benefit your child. What types of choices did you make here, what helped you decide what to do, and how did the expectation that, as a parent, you "should" put your child first enter into your thinking?
• A couple of the choices involved behaving in a way that might challenge norms, laws, or your moral values. What issues did these choices raise?
• In the end, how long did you survive before you ran out of money? If you played more than once, please give all your scores and discuss what you did differently in order to keep from going broke sooner.
• What did you learn and take away from this assignment?