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Poshterity Budgeting

To use this budget tool, fill in your current expenses in each appropriate column.

For next year’s budget, think of how you can replace expenses by starting with the most abundant resources first, using the Plan A-F on this upside down pyramid as your guide.

Below are ways you might replace monetary expenses with other supports, for each budget line.

For more background and a rough example, watch this web meeting video from our February 2020 Posh Life workshop.

Food

  • Start or participate in a food swap. Include garden produce, excess from CSA shares, excess cooked food. Earn timebank hours for organizing, deduct expenses accordingly.
  • Use timebank hours to ‘hire’ someone to prepare meals for you. Reimburse for ingredients, discuss how to keep costs low.

Space

  • Cooperative housing
    • Scattered-site cooperative housing
  • Co-housing
  • TimeBank space sharing – best for meeting space and part-time use, but has occasionally been used to provide full-time housing
  • Land trusts
  • Common Funds for shared land ownership
    • Common Funds for Housing Access and Land Stewardship Solidarity Summit 4.20.20   Meeting recording

Wellness

  • Complementary care access through timebanking.
  • Less expense for insurance – buy catastrophic coverage, create savings pool for below-deductible

Transportation

  • Use timebanking for ride-sharing
    • Earn hours during trips by picking stuff up or providing rides for others
    • Split the gas money!
    • Save trips by asking timebankers to pick things up for you
  • Car-sharing

Utilities

  • Complementary care access through timebanking.
  • Participate in a weatherizing coop
    • Build your own skills, earn timebank hours to weatherize
    • Save money on heating expenses
  • Participate in a solarizing coop
    • Build your own skills, earn timebank hours to solarize
    • Save money on energy expenses

Care

  • Use timebanking to access care for children and elders, people with illness or disability.

Creativity

  • Use timebanking and swaps to get supplies and inspiration
  • Use timebanking to access lessons
  • Earn timebank hours to host workshops – build your skills and connections
  • Commission handmade items for timebank hours, trade, other forms of community credit
  • Art supply swaps are a great way to save money and refresh your supplies
    • Earn timebank hours to help organize

Leisure

  • Offer what your local artists need in the timebank, and
  • Recruit your local artists to offer event tickets in the timebank
  • The Common Good payment system or price-based mutual credit system (ie LETS) can help engage local businesses in your cooperative economic network, and defray our cash expenses at bars, restaurants, music and arts venues, sports venues, etc

Goods

  • Attend or host swaps in your community. Bonus: Earn hours for your time hosting
  • Help create a regular or ongoing swap, library of things, and/or free store. Bonus: Earn hours for your time helping
  • The Common Good payment system or price-based mutual credit system (ie LETS) can help engage local businesses in your cooperative economic network, and defray our cash expenses at bars, restaurants, music and arts venues, sports venues, etc. Bonus: Earn hours for your time organizing

Education

  • Free Skool-style community level education and skillsharing
  • Class credits for service in the community
  • Saber – style partnership with educational institutions to exchange tutoring hours’ credits for later tuition

Help

  • Timebanking is built for this
  • Neighbor-to-neighbor care teams. Bonus: Earn hours for organizing, providing help. Build increased security for you and your community
  • Regular mutual support gatherings ie Dreamtime

Future

  • Build and sustain timebank for use in future need
  • Save in Common Fund or Savings Pool

Repair&Maintenance

  • Timebank
  • Handybuddies
  • Repair Cafes
  • Coming soon: Resilience Crews

Giving
Misc
Emergency Fund

  • Build and sustain timebank for use in future need
  • Save in Common Fund or Savings Pool
  • Ongoing crowdfunding platforms