Bartering is common in other parts of the world.
In today’s hustle and bustle society, with big box stores on every corner, when we need (or want) something, our first instinct is usually to run into the store and buy it (hopefully, with cash).
But how much money do we waste by doing that? In my quest to be frugal, I like to think outside the box. In days gone by, before there was any national currency, it was common to barter for things a person needed. A farmer might offer some of his eventual corn crop to someone in exchange for help with the planting or harvesting.
I like the idea of bartering. The sharing of resources. You have something I need, and I have something you need, so lets make a trade.
In the past my husband and I have bartered for several things. My most frequent barter is the exchange of babysitting services. But we’ve also made some unconventional barters. My husband has traded guitar lessons for car repairs. A woman I knew from church bartered her cleaning services for private school tuition. The possibilities are endless.
Last night on Twitter I asked if anyone bartered and wanted to share their stories. I only got a few responses (which makes me think bartering isn’t that common nowadays), but they were good.
Mercedes from Common Sense with Money pointed me to a great example of bartering. This woman happened to find a great barter on Freecycle, but an even better place to look for barters is Craigslist.org. I don’t know about the Craigslists in your areas, but I know my local Craigslist has a whole section devoted to bartering.
Beth from Green Stew says she barters all the time. She does the shopping for her I.T. guy, and he takes care of her computers for her. Now that’s smart thinking!
Cindi from Moomettesgrams’s Musings and Moomette’s Mama Mentor Blog barters for advertising on her blogs. Brilliant!
I think that as finances get tighter, bartering will begin to catch on in the United States. In fact, some people have seen the money in bartering and have started bartering businesses. Just be careful when you deal with bartering businesses, though. I don’t know the ins and outs, but there are tax implications, and you don’t want to be caught unaware. Thank you to Jessica from Jessica Knows for bringing that to my attention.
On an informal basis, though, bartering can be a great way to get the services you need without spending any money. If you have something to offer, let people know about it. You never know what you might get in exchange!
Have you ever bartered? What did you trade? Did it work out well for you?
Photo by Kai Hendry.
August 12th, 2008 at 5:43 am
Lynnae,
went to twitter and couldn’t read all of the responses to the bartering question. But anywhoo, I recently bartered through freecycle for a bread maker. A woman and her daughter were make up fanatics and I had a good amount of free product and samples that I was willing to let go. In turn, I got a 200 dollar bread maker.
August 12th, 2008 at 7:22 am
We live in rural farm country where bartering is prevalent. My mother-in-law is the master barter. Living on a 150 year old farm in which NOTHING was ever discarded gives us plenty of bartering power. We raise beef cattle, so we barter a lot with our beef. We had an old tractor refurbished in which we exchanged a side of beef for the labor. My mother-in-law has bartered old pick up trucks for equipment repair. We’ve bartered on several occasions during the construction of our house. We would much rather barter with someone than pay and with our experiences, both parties are much happier with bartering!
August 12th, 2008 at 8:05 am
I work in IT, doing pc support. So of course I have several relatives and friends who always want/need me to work on their PC’s. I usually trade my services for dinner. My husband and I like to eat out, but don’t want to pay to do so. So I fix the person’s pc, and they take us out to eat or make us a meal.
August 12th, 2008 at 8:16 am
I’ve always had bad experiences bartering. That is probably because the only place I have experienced it is in markets in Tijuana. As a result I have always preferred to pay a price for goods, but I am certainly open to the idea of bartering services for services.
August 12th, 2008 at 8:43 am
My mom is a dentist and has bartered her services for some remodeling on her house.
August 12th, 2008 at 10:43 am
You might not have gotten a lot of responses about the types of bartering people do, because it may be taxable, etc, and people just don’t want to talk about it for that reason. If you are exchanging services, it may be considered a type of income on both sides. People like these things to remain ‘under the table’… Not reporting them can be considered falsifying your tax return!
If a person is on Social security, disability, food stamps, etc…. then the ‘income’ from bartering could possibly mess up their income limits.
I’d say in my low income rural area it is probably VERY prevalent - but not talked about for the income reasons.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Oh I don’t think its a lost art… I think its actually always been around and with the help of the internet there is a renaissance of bartering–in all kinds of ways. Freecycle and Craiglist being just a part of that.
I’m so glad too!
August 15th, 2008 at 11:20 am
My mom barters for EVERYTHING. She has a flower shop. She uses bouquets to pay for everything from massages to meat. No joke.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:22 am
@writer dad - I wouldn’t be mentioning that a lot unless she’s also paying her taxes on the value of the barters. It IS considered taxable income in a lot of states.
August 16th, 2008 at 6:33 am
Hi Lynnae,
Thank you so much for the mention. Bartering is very common in the country where I come from. People barter for services or goods. Bartering enhances your negotiation skills.
I didn’t know you could barter on Freecycle would have to check it out.
August 20th, 2008 at 8:00 am
My boyfriend and I go to a lot of concerts with big followings of people who set up and vend in the parking lot outside the show (think Grateful Dead). BF also downloads and trades shows obsessively (he has over 10,000 cds in his collection) and so he began taking a box of burned music to trade with people in the parking lot. We get food, beer, and other assorted items (including wearables (not the highest quality but sometimes unique and interesting) and art (sometimes really cool art) from this hobby.
As long as he does not sell the cds and makes sure that he trades bands which support audience taping (another hobby of his) it’s fine legally - cops are more concerned with drug vendors than music barterers. The only problem is that he’s saturated the market (which he also has a corner on - no one else does this that we’ve seen) and the people at these shows know us and have gotten what they want from us. It’s still fun, though, and it’s a good way for us to get souvenirs and spread music he loves.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:13 am
I’m actively looking for opportunities to do more bartering. Mostly what I’ve got to offer is bread and other baked goods. I sell some to friends and family. I’d really like to be able to get some trees taken down, or the truck repaired via barter. But most folks don’t have chest freezers, so they can only take a few loaves of bread at a time. I’d be happy to run a tab for them, but there are trust issues, I suppose.
I bartered some of my loaves for our retirement age laying hens this past spring. It was a good trade.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Actually, exchanging money for a good or service is only a more advanced form of barter. Money is a universal commodity of exchange. But unlike other commodities money has been monopolized by the state-bank cartel, who is now free to distort the economy and redistribute wealth by devaluing the money. The short book my name links to explains this important issue thoroughly.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
There’s also something called time banking, which is like organized bartering. There are local groups in several cities. http://www.timebanks.org/
August 20th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
A coworker has a huge property full of flowers, gardens, etc. She made several lavendar bouquets tied with ribbon and was selling for $10 apiece. I said I only had $7 that day and would be willing to give her some zucchini from my garden in payment for the rest. She acted kind of put-off and then took my 7 bucks. I said *I owe you some zucchini* and she said “no, that’s fine!!* (in a huff). I said well, don’t you want any zucchini? and she said, well, okay, sure. Then later on she said she liked bartering!
Also, I tried to barter with the neighboring manicure/pedicure shop owner - since I lived 2 houses down, I said I would sweep up all her leaves in exchange for a pedicure. I also sewed on her daughter’s girl scout patches toward the pedicure. Here again, the concept wasn’t too well received, but the owner said OK, after some hesitation.
My experience with bartering is that it wasn’t too well received.
August 21st, 2008 at 7:09 am
Bartering can be wonderful, I do it all the time. But a word or (words) of caution are in order: when it is between friends, do still document the services rendered (and the monetary value) as it becomes all too easy for one of the parties to “forget” to pay their debt or diminish the previously stated value and therefore never fullfill their end of the trade. Also sometimes it just doesn’t make sense to barter for something you don’t need. Cash is King in economically hard pressed times.
August 31st, 2008 at 11:53 pm
I’ve always had bad experiences bartering. That is probably because the only place I have experienced it is in markets in Tijuana.
September 27th, 2008 at 12:26 am
In fact, some people have seen the money in bartering and have started bartering businesses. Just be careful when you deal with bartering businesses, though. I don’t know the ins and outs, but there are tax implications, and you don’t want to be caught unaware.