Bartering: Build Community, Reduce Waste and Save Money

Why buy when you could barter? Swapping goods and services is an easy way to reduce your expenses while still getting what you want or need. Bartering also reduces waste—instead of throwing away what you no longer use, bartering networks can help you find a new home for old stuff. Likewise, always buying new goods strains the earth's resources, but bartering for used items can reduce your impact as a consumer. At its best, bartering—the clever, age-old practice of trading one commodity for another—allows you to share your time and talent with others in your community, and allows others to do the same for you.

Babysitting co-ops are a great example of creative bartering. As many parents know, it is often difficult and costly to find a reliable babysitter. In a babysitting co-op or babysitting swap group, parents, who could be friends, co-workers, neighbors or family members, take turns watching one another's children. Time spent babysitting earns childcare credit for use when their own kids need a babysitter. Parents can choose to join a babysitting co-op already in their area, or to start their own with friends, family, and neighbors. The size of the group can be as large or small as parents feel comfortable. Either way, free babysitting in exchange for free babysitting makes getting out of the house much more affordable.

A variety of well-established, local programs expand bartering beyond childcare. Hour Dollars, for example, is a service exchange program connecting people throughout St. Paul and the surrounding suburbs. Founded in 1998, Hour Dollars enables neighbors to trade everything from music lessons to legal advice to lawn and garden care. Regardless of which type of service it is, every hour of service provided among Hour Dollars members earns one hour of credit for another service in the program. Similarly, the Neighborhood Service Exchange (NSE) of Washington County encourages people of all ages to trade service hours. The NSE is focused on strengthening community and developing a local network of volunteers. It even allows members to donate service credits to help a neighbor who can't personally provide a service in return.

Bartering isn't limited to a trade of services; it also illustrates the old adage that one person's trash is another person's treasure. Locally, both Minnesota Materials Exchange (MME) and the Twin Cities Free Market are focused on reducing waste by promoting free reusable goods. While Minnesota Materials Exchange and Twin Cities Free Market differ from traditional bartering models in that they don't require a direct, equal exchange of goods, they are still fantastic opportunities for businesses, organizations, and residents to give and get without spending money. The environmental and financial impact of these programs is significant. MME, for example, reports that in the last five years they have "helped businesses save over $7 million and exchange over 30 million pounds of material."

The internet has been an extremely useful tool for bartering, connecting people across town and across the globe. Free online sites like U-Exchange allow people to post what they have to offer and what they are seeking, and to narrow trading searches by keyword and location. Minnesotans use U-Exchange to trade a wide variety of practical and valuable goods and services: computer services in exchange for help finishing a basement, painting in exchange for auto repair, home appliances in exchange for gardening and landscaping, books in exchange for more books, an elliptical machine in exchange for a small fishing boat. As an alternative to spending money on an expensive hotel, U-Exchange can even be used to temporarily swap homes for vacations. In addition to the many bartering tips U-Exchange offers, the extensive site reminds us that while bartering may seem like an unfamiliar concept to some, everyone who traded lunches in the cafeteria or mowed the lawn so they could borrow their parents car has already had a bit of practice.