There was a time when, especially in rural America, most \u201ccommerce\u201d was done not by exchanging cash money for goods you wanted but by trading something you had and could spare for something you needed.\u00a0 Many rural General Stores were simply barter centers where families who had chickens would bring eggs and trade them for butter and milk brought in by another family or for flour ground by the mill up the road.<\/p>\n
These stores would have cloth, pots, pans and farming implements brought in from the more industrialized East, thereby being able to supply most of the needs the local families had.\u00a0 Cash transactions were accepted of course, but a large part of their trade was done through barter.<\/p>\n
Rural life is still a lot like that.\u00a0 Swapping favors is one way we can help one another get things done without depleting our bank accounts.\u00a0 This goes beyond rallying around a friend who has something heavy to move because we know when we need help he will return the favor.\u00a0 For instance, I have the equipment and skills to do high end woodworking, Tim has a truck and trailer.\u00a0 Tim has often delivered my furniture pieces going \u201cout East\u201d for me, and I have built him furniture.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Barbara Ling, a 13 year marketing veteran and very funny person who shares her home with two mooses (meese?) has been tutoring me on marketing techniques; things I can use both in selling my furniture and in building a readership on this blog.\u00a0 I often take the opportunity to repay some of her kindness by helping to make you aware of her oh-so awesome new web site and services she provides.<\/p>\n
Mike is a certified network engineer and Mike and I have, for more years than I care to admit, traded computer advice for woodworking advice as well as being generally supportive by listening to one anothers rants and celebrating successes.<\/p>\n
Another fellow, Tristan has been helping me tweak this web site to help it perform better and I\u2026 well\u2026 I guess I haven\u2019t done diddly for Tristan yet.\u00a0 So that\u2019s a barter debt.<\/p>\n
I’ve made new writer friends on-line with whom I trade favors by critiquing each others’ work or offering advice when we get stuck on an issue.\u00a0 In one case I was able to swap my help in formatting a manuscript for cover art from someone much more skilled in that than I.\u00a0 Swapping favors is still a form of bartering.<\/p>\n
So, bartering can be swapping home-made lye soap for a sack of flour, or me building a set of custom end tables in exchange for a new washing machine from Buddy’s Appliances, it can be swapping expert advice, or it can be just helping out by talking one another up.<\/p>\n
And, in this day and age, the friends and \u201cneighbors\u201d who make up a community don\u2019t have to be within any physical location.\u00a0 Tim lives up the road from me, Mike is in Alabama, Tristan is in Utah, Barbara is in New Jersey.\u00a0 This makes it a bit tough for everyone to get together for a barbecue, but does not preclude being friends and helping one another.<\/p>\n
With the American economy as tight as it is right now, I\u2019m seeing more of the old barter system being brought back into play to get around cash shortages and still supply your family\u2019s needs.\u00a0 If you\u2019d like to check out some barter deals you can poke around in web sites like these, or your local newspaper classifieds section. There are many more, but that will give you an idea.\u00a0 Some are paid membership sites, some are free, some allow you to deal directly with other users, some use \u201ccredits\u201d earned by selling your stuff to \u201cbuy\u201d something else through their site.\u00a0 As always, check the terms and don\u2019t assume anything.<\/p>\n As for me, I like doing my horse-trading for physical goods with local folks, and here in the mountains a lot of local folks are willing to do a little bartering.\u00a0 Now, if we could just get ‘ol Wal-Mart on board with the idea!<\/p>\n [amazon_enhanced asin=”1602399530″ \/] [amazon_enhanced asin=”1592579310″ \/][amazon_enhanced asin=”1404811575″ \/]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There was a time when, especially in rural America, most “commerce” was done not by exchanging cash money for goods you wanted but by trading something you had and could spare for something you needed. Many rural General Stores were simply barter centers where families who had chickens would bring eggs and trade them for … Continue reading “Simply Swapping Favors and the Barter System”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[27],"class_list":["post-1255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-financial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21623,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1255\/revisions\/21623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nhttp:\/\/www.swap.com<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.BarterBart.com
\nhttp:\/\/www.SwapAce.com
\nhttp:\/\/www.BuyersTap.com
\nhttp:\/\/www.Skills2Barter.com<\/p>\n