The January Game

So this year I will resume the January Game.


Last January I was reliant upon the kindness of strangers for my housing - and while I briefly advocated the January Game, it was Mongolia and things stored in freezers were meant to last as long as possible and to be savored rarely.

The basic rules of the January Game are simple:

1. Don't purchase any food until you have finished everything in storage.
2. You may buy bread, milk, and one other item each week.
3. Create one new feature to enhance the game and personalize it - the new feature should focus on simplifying life, generating surprise income, or saving money.

My friends Jared and Janet (and now Jovi Indigo!) Kaup taught me the game a few years ago. In the final days of January we ate a shrimp pizza made from biscuit dough, shrimp dipping sauce, Parmesan cheese, and frozen shrimp. It was delicious.

One January I put all of my books up for sale on Amazon and made a few hundred dollars. The same January my friends cleaned our the garage and returned all unused supplies to the hardware stores they had purchased the items at. You would be surprised the amount of cash that we just sit on in our daily lives.

This year will be a little difficult because I live with roommates and they eat my food - so I don't have much stockpiled. I envision a lot of rice happening at the end of the month.

My extra component this year will focus on simplifying my life.

I will remove one item a day from my life. This means that I will either throw away, give away, sell, return, or re-purpose one item every day.

On January 1st I will throw away one of my suitcases. The wheels are broken, and I have been dreading carting it to the airport in that condition - so instead I will only take one suitcase back to the states. This means that I will need to let go of many things between now and then. When I have the time and energy I will post pictures and stories of things as they leave me throughout the month of January.