Bartering with Friends: An Easy Way to Save a Bunch of Money
Bartering, the act of trading good or services for other goods or services has been around longer than money. How can you make it work for you? Everyone has skills, whether acquired through a job or as a hobby that would be useful to other people. The next time you get together with a group of friends, family, or neighbors for drinks, dinner, or whatever, suggest that the group start informally bartering to help each other out.
Many friends help each other out already, doing favors without asking for any payment. Wouldn’t they be even more likely to volunteer to help, though, if they knew you’d be helping them out with something in return? You don’t need to create any formal agreement, simply making a mental note to help each other and “get each other back” in short order should be enough.
What types of services can be bartered? Pretty much anything, really. Here are a few examples from my own experiences:
– A friend of mine is a veterinarian. She recently fixed my cat, and got him his yearly shots. It didn’t take her long or cost her much, but it saved me a ton of money. To show my appreciation, I’ll be making my friend dinner and babysitting her daughter so she can head to the gym, go shopping, or simply just relax for a bit.
– Another friend of mine was getting his kitchen renovated, and was paying a steep hourly rate to the contractors. Since he didn’t want to pay them to rip out his old walls, fixtures, and the like, I spent a couple days helping him tear everything out and get ting it thrown away. It saved him hundreds of dollars, and didn’t cost me anything but time. He’s more than paid me back in good food and beer (he homebrews).
– When it came time for the same friend to insulate his kitchen, he again didn’t want to pay the contractor to do something so straightforward. He wasn’t entirely sure how to insulate, but I had done it before. While I insulated his kitchen, he changed the brakes on my car. I bought the part, but had no idea how to install it. He had the know-how and tools to do the job. We both saved each other a bunch of money.
– I helped another friend tear up and reseed his lawn one hot summer’s day earlier this summer. It was dirty, tiring work, but it was good exercise for me on a Saturday that my girlfriend was working. Plus, he’s repaid me with food, beer, and computer advice since.
– I have a friend who has helped me countless times with small home improvement tasks that are beyond my limited abilities. To help repay him, I built a web site for his small business, and taught him the basics of how to update and maintain it.
– My friend with the kitchen renovation project also has a small powerboat. He hadn’t used it in a few years and it was filthy. He works second shift, so finding time to take care of that during daylight hours was proving difficult for him. Armed with knowledge I picked up helping a friend with a boat maintenance company (the one I built the web site for), I washed and waxed his boat. I was repaid with a great day on the lake with my friend, his wife, and my girlfriend. He even supplied food and drinks for a cookout.
As you can see, skills you can barter can range from manual labor to skilled crafts to computer skills.
Here are a few more examples of skills that would be great to barter:
– Legal services
– Landscaping or yard work
– Painting a room
– Setting up a new computer and getting it online
– Childcare
In addition to saving yourself and your friend’s time, money, and stress, bartering also allows you to turn time that would be spent doing “chores” into time you spend with friends. After all, an unpleasant task seems a lot more bearable when you have company. Plus, depending on what you’re helping with, you probably are getting some other benefits, whether it be getting in some practice (say, building a web site), getting some fresh air or exercise, or trying new things.
So, don’t pay full price for services your friends can do, and don’t let your friends pay for things you can help them out with. If you all make a conscious effort to make sure everyone is getting “paid back” for their time and expertise, you can spend a lot more time with friends, and a lot less time writing checks to strangers.
