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Supported by HSBC UK

Try the Bill Busters challenge

Balance your bills, handle unexpected costs, and watch how your decisions impact your household budget.

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You’ll need

  • A4 paper
  • Pens or pencils
  • Something to represent money, such as sticks, stones or Monopoly money
  • Printed copies of the Bill Busters challenge cards
  • Cones for marking stations (optional)
Bill Busters Challenge Cards
PDF – 87.9KB
Download Bill Busters Challenge Cards
Bill Busters Recording Sheets
PDF – 72.1KB
Download Bill Busters Recording Sheets

Before you begin

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There’s also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
  • Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help.

Planning and setting up this activity

  • Set up five stations around the meeting space: Home, The Bank, Electricity Bills, Water Bills and Surprise Expenses.
  • An adult volunteer, such as a parent or carer, could be based at each station.
  • Write or print out the cards. To keep things organised, you could use a different colour paper for each set.
  • Shuffle the cards in each set, so they’re in a random order.

Aim of the activity

The aim of this activity is to help young people learn about credit and debit by managing household bills. Each group will take on the role of a household and decide how to pay for necessities, such as water and electricity bills. They'll pick cards at random, adding some unpredictability, just like real-life financial decisions can be. They’ll choose whether to use debit or credit and see what happens as a result of their choices.

How to Manage Money

  • Planning and Budgeting
  • Financial planning and budgeting

Becoming a Critical Consumer

  • Using information and advice to make financial decisions
  • Taking responsibility
  • Credit: When you use credit, you’re borrowing money, which means you’ll have to pay it back later, usually with some extra charges (interest). Remember, credit card interest is avoidable if debt is paid in full. It’s like using money that’s not yours right now, but you promise to repay it. In the game, when teams choose credit, they’re borrowing to pay a bill but will owe more in the future. 
  • Debit: Debit means paying with the money you already have in your account. If you have £10 in your account and the bill is £10, you pay it directly without borrowing. There’s no interest to pay with debit, but you need to make sure you have enough money in your account. 
  • Credit and Debit cards: Credit cards allow you to borrow money to pay for things now and pay it back later (with interest). Some credit cards allow you to borrow money without having to pay interest, but this is usually just for a short amount of time. Debit cards allow you to use your own money to pay for things, so you need to have enough in your account. 
  • Prepaid cards: Prepaid cards are different to credit or debit cards. They're cards that you load a specific amount of money onto and you can only spend that amount. It's a bit like a using a pay-as-you-go mobile or a gift card. Some prepaid cards have fees you have to pay - for example, monthly or annual fees.

This activity may touch on sensitive topics, such as food, money or food banks, which some young people or their families might be affected by. 

It’s important to create a safe, positive and supportive space where everyone feels comfortable. Let everyone know it’s okay to ask questions, say if they feel unsure, or step away at any time. Always follow the Yellow Card.

You might need to make adjustments, such as:

  • Tell people about the activity in advance
  • Offer the option to leave or do an alternative activity
  • Speak with parents or carers beforehand
  • Remind everyone they can talk to a trusted adult if they’re upset or worried

You can offer trusted support services if needed, such as Childline (0800 1111), Citizen’s Advice (0808 223 1133) and Crimestoppers (0800 555 111).

The Trussell Trust is a great place to start looking for a food bank near you. You can find details of independent food banks online. The UK Government have some debt advice support too.

Make sure that all adult volunteers and young leaders keep all discussions age-appropriate and supportive.

This is where each team starts. They pick a card at random which gives them their monthly starting balance.  

This is where each team visits at the start of each round to collect their money. 

The team picks a card to see how much they owe for their water bill. They decide whether to use their existing funds (debit) or borrow money (credit) to cover the cost.

The team picks a card to see how much they owe for their electricity bill. They decide whether to use their existing funds (debit) or borrow money (credit) to cover the cost.

The team picks a surprise expense card that presents an unexpected financial challenge, such as a broken phone, medical bills or car repair. They decide whether to use their existing funds (debit) or borrow money (credit) to cover the cost.

  

Running this activity

  1. Ask if anyone know what credit or debit is. You can use the explanations on this page. A simple explanation is:
    • Credit: Credit is borrowing money to pay for something, such as paying on a credit card. For example, if you don’t have enough money to pay for a car repair, you can borrow the money from the bank on a credit card, but you'll need to pay it back. You may also need to pay interest or a fee to use credit.
    • Debit: Debit is using your own money to pay for something. If you pay for something with a debit card, you're using the money you already have in your bank account. 
    • Prepaid cards: Prepaid cards are different to credit or debit cards. You load money onto the card and you can only spend what's on the card. There might be fees you have to pay to use or own a prepaid card. 
  2. Ask everyone to get into teams.
  3. Explain that each team will be a ‘household’ and they’ll need to manage their household finances.
  4. The teams will move through the different stations, choosing cards,  deciding how to manage their money and trying not to get into debt. 
  5. Explain that the game will be played over three rounds, with each round representing a month. The winning team will be the team who ends the game with the most money in debit.  

Round 1

  1. Teams start at the Home station and pick a card to find out their starting balance.
  2. Next, they go to the Bank to collect their money.
  3. Then they visit each station (water bill, electricity bill, surprise expense), pick a random card to see what they owe, and choose to pay by debit or credit.
  4. They keep track of what they spend and what they still owe.
  5. If they can’t afford a bill with their debit amount, they must use credit before moving on.
  6. After all stations, they return to Home to total up their spending. If they’ve used credit, they may be in minus numbers. 
  7. Then, start round 2.

Round 2

  1. Teams return to the Home station and pick another money card.
  2. They should then go back to the bank to get their second payment. They add this to any money left from round 1.
  3. Then, they visit the same three stations again and pay the bills again.
  4. At the end, they should work out their savings or loss for round 2.

Round 3

  1. For Round 3, repeat the same process again.
  2. At the end, they should work out their savings or loss for round 3. This will be the final amount. 

Finding out the winner

  1. Gather everyone back together to compare how teams got on. 
  2. Ask each team how much money they have, either in credit or in debt.
  3. Whoever ended up with most money after all the bills were paid, wins.

Once everyone understands the basic concept of managing credit and debit, you can deepen the learning by adding more real-life costs and financial decisions. This makes the activity more relatable and gives them a more accurate picture of adult budgeting.

You may need to set more accurate monthly income to accomodate. 

Examples of Real-Life Expenses to Include

  • Rent or Mortgage
    Add as a required expense (for example, 20% of their starting balance).
  • Council Tax / Rates
    Add as a required expense (for example, 10% of their starting balance). 
  • Internet and Phone bills
    Add as a required expense (such as £10-£30).
  • Gas Bill
    Introduce gas bills using the same method as electricity.
  • Food Bill
    Introduce food bills using the same method as water. 
  • Insurance (Car, Health, Home, phone)
    Offer optional insurance cards for £10. If a team chooses to pay for insurance, they’re protected from one any related surprise expense later in the game.

Introducing Investing

At the end of each round, teams may choose to invest.

  • They can invest £50 a round. 

  • This money is locked until the end of the game — they cannot use it to pay bills later.

  • For every round it stays invested, it earns £10 in interest.

  • At the end, teams receive their original investment plus any interest earned.

This helps young people explore long-term thinking and weigh up risk vs. reward. Can they grow their savings, or will short-term needs catch them out?

Reflection

This activity was about managing money. You dealt with paying bills and unexpected costs, choosing when to use your own money (debit) or borrow (credit), and saw how these choices affected your team’s budget. What was your team’s plan for handling money? Did it change during the game?

This was a bit like managing your income or salary and outgoings each month. There’s lots of hard decisions. Were you surprised with how much or how little you had left at the end? How do you think managing money at home is different in real life? What other bills might you need to pay, such as rent/mortgages or council tax?

You really had to work as a team. How did you make a decision? Did everyone get to have their say and did you listen to each other? Which choices helped your team the most? Which didn’t work? Would you do anything differently if you played again or in real life? What did you learn?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.

Scissors

Supervise young people appropriately when they’re using scissors. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.

To make the activity harder you could:

  • Add More Realistic Bills such as rent, groceries, council tax, internet, or transport costs. These reflect the true costs of living independently and encourage better budgeting decisions.
  • Introduce Future Planning by asking young people to think about where they might be in 5 years' time. Will they be a student, in full-time work, or perhaps doing an apprenticeship? How will this affect their income and expenses?
    • Students may have access to a student loan and are usually exempt from council tax, but might have limited income from part-time work.
    • Full-time workers will likely earn more, but also need to pay taxes and full bills, including council tax, rent, and possibly commuting costs.

Make it accessible

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Scouts Money Skills Activity Badge
Explorers Money Skills Activity Badge
Explorers Money Skills Activity Badge

If you enjoyed this activity, why not try out our other HSBC money skills activities.