The Bean Game

Play in groups of two or more, or alone. Each player or group gets 20 beans and a set of spending category sheets. The beans are the income. The sheets list what it can go on, and each item shows a number of squares — that is how many beans it costs. Spend according to the life you have, what you value and what you are aiming at. ROUND 1

First pick one item from every category with a gold star: food, housing, furnishings, transport, insurance, and clothing and washing. Once those are done, keep choosing until all 20 beans are spent.

POINTS FOR DISCUSSION

Why those things? What were you going on — what you value, what you are aiming at, what has happened to you before? Compare your sheet with somebody else's and find the first real difference.

ROUND 2

Your income has just been cut to 13 beans. What goes? Change the sheets until only 13 beans are spent. POINTS FOR DISCUSSION

What did you give up first, and why? What did you find out about yourself? Compare your cuts with somebody else's — people cut in a very particular order, and the order is worth arguing about.

AND THEN, BECAUSE LIFE DOES THIS. 1) Someone at home has broken a leg. If you bought insurance, nothing happens. If you did not, take off 3 beans.

2) Your mother or father has got a raise worth 2 beans. Decide where it goes — and notice whether you put it back into what you cut.