Time Banks Allow Members to Save, Share

PHOENIXVILLE, Pa. (MyFOX ATLANTA) - In these tough economic times, people are finding creative ways to get what they need without spending money. Now, people are looking to time banks to help them save.

In the case of time banks the old adage, "Time is money" is absolutely true.

This new kind of bank trades in a very different kind of currency.

Things like walking someone's dog, giving a music lesson, stuffing envelopes or cleaning up a community garden are the kind of tasks that usually cost money.

With the current economic downturn in full swing, many people can't afford to shell out cash to get the tasks done.

"I've met a number of people who've lost their jobs, or don't have as much spending power as they used to," said Margo Ketchum.

Ketchum is a founding member of the Phoenixville Area Time Bank, a Pennsylvania chapter of a national organization which is effecting social change at the grassroots level.

Based on both the barter system and the pay-it-forward idea, time-banking allows people do work for one another and receive services in return.

If someone spends an hour walking a dog for a neighbor, they bank an hour that can be used to buy an hour long music lesson from another time bank member.

"It would take days and weeks to do what members helped me pull together in a few hours," said Ketchum.

On the group's time bank website, members advertised their services for what they consider to be their specialties like gardening or baking.

The members can then tally up their time dollars and spend them on things like a massage, bicycle repair or a ride to the airport.

"We can't control what goes on in Washington and we can't control Wall Street, but we can control what goes on in our back yard," said Ketchum.

Thousands of people are involved in time bank community chapters from coast to coast. Time bank chapters have also popped up around the world from Spain to South Korea.