Bartering

[Alice Abbott]

I have been getting really into the swing of this over the last few days. Once I've got over the hurdle of persuading people that a) yes, their junk is actually going to be my treasure and b) I really want "things" rather than money in exchange for the jobs I do then we seem to get along very well.

So far I've negotiated to do lawn mowing (they have a sit on lawnmower and provide the fuel but it IS nearly half an acre) until mid November and then again from mid March in exchange for the use of a large old chest freezer in their barn plus electricity to run it. This will be an absolute godsend to me and they think they have a wonderful deal too!

Cat sitting and house plant care for two months (in their home) with another Scottish neighbour. The exchange is, as they put it, a pile of old wood plus rusty tools and nails etc. It is in fact a mountain of finished pine, chestnut and oak which has not been used before, some good quality hand tools and enough nails and screws to turn the whole lot into something useful. Also a wooden barrel (soon to be a waterbutt) an old but serviceable sack truck, a big box of glasses and crockery and an enormous and beautiful deep blue woollen Oriental rug which is totally undamaged and just needs airing and a bit of cleaning to the fringes. Amazingly both of us think we have a very good deal!

After school care of a French child when school starts again. This involves picking her up from the bus stop and keeping her for an hour each evening for a two month period. In exchange I get a perfectly good chicken run and two beautiful oil lamps. Also my two children (now 4 and 2) get an hour a day of free French lessons thrown in.

I'm now in the midst of negotiating for a big box of fabric, wool and sewing items plus two more of English books. The lady concerned is determined to just give them to me so I think she might be getting some jam in exchange.

I suppose it helps that we are surrounded by people living in old houses with lots of accumulated junk but it's a great way of recycling!

[Stonehead]

Stonehead's exchange rate calculator...


6 pints of homebrew stout = butchering of one pig

one butchered half pig = half a day's work from a man with a JCB

1 dozen eggs, six lettuces, a bunch of baby carrots, a bag of new potatoes and a pork joint = 1 wardrobe

2 pork joints, a sack of potatoes and two jars of jam = 1 1932 treadle sewing machine

6 pints of stout, a bag of new potatoes, a jar of jam, 1 dozen eggs, and half a dozen pork chops = half a day's ploughing

1 gallon of cider, 2 pork joints, eight pork chops, 2 dozen eggs, a sack of potatoes, a bag of carrots and a string of onions = a day's work from two men with chainsaws and industrial woodchipper

1 cake, 1 jar of jam and 1 dozen eggs = three day's use of a washing machine

1 weeks fencing = 1 bottle of single malt, a bench saw and a monkey strainer

2 weaners = 100 bales of straw

[clare]

Ooh I love a bit of bartering but most people I know think I live in another century and just don't understand life could be so much better if we used the old ways, afterall without cash we wouldn't need banks........

[Stonehead]

Ooh I love a bit of bartering but most people I know think I live in another century and just don't understand life could be so much better if we used the old ways, afterall without cash we wouldn't need banks........

And your typical mugger would find it much more difficult to run off with a keg of cider, two pigs and a sack of potatoes. Unless he had his longship waiting for him...

[Jandra]

A exchange takes place at the allotment site: a bag of overripe pears for a pumpkin, potted up strawberry runners for blackberries, watering a greenhouse during vacation for the cucumbers and tomatoes that ripen in that time, broadbean seedlings for yellow podded mange-tout seed...

Gonna miss it when I definitely say goodbye to my plot in two weeks time.

Jandra

[Islay]

Wow, I wish I had something to barter! Have no time, money or goods at the moment (that makes me sound even poorer/more busy than I am, but you know what I mean), but hopefully when we move next year I can start making friends with the neighbours and maybe start swapping some of our hypothetical produce for things.

[Millymollymandy]

What, no runner beans and courgettes?

[Green Aura]

I'm currently being kept in duck eggs in exchange for a pot of my rose geranium moisturiser - she won't tell me when she's paid up, but thus far we've had about 4 dozen.

I think she likes it!

[Millymollymandy]

ha ha, big mistake!

[snapdragon]

I'm not so good at this - mostly when I do stuff for people they want to give me money.

making costumes for school plays = bags of split logs
patch repairs to some sofa covers = motorcycle repair. And am expecting some runner beans from allotmenteers = pollard prunings for beanpoles.

[Ron and Jean]

My friends mum makes the best lemon curd and is always looking for good eggs to use. I gave her a couple of our eggs and asked how many eggs = 1 jar of lemon curd......

I recently swapped herbal medicine for massage (which was great).

I was also very pleased when someone from freecycle took away our scraps of roofing felt and left a jar of plum jam in return

Bartering is great. I wish more people round here were open to it.

[Millymollymandy]

Oh you lucky, lucky cow! Trout's worth miles more than a bag of beans!

[SarahJane]

This bartering malarky is THE BEST!!!

I was considering starting up a chutney and pickle buisiness, but as I work full time and can only make so much stuff, I am at the moment using it to barter and it is working really well.

So far I "swap" my products for;

other veggies that people have a glut of
having my eyebrows tinted
alcohol (from time to time)
odd jobs around the house
books (I provide chutneys and get a work colleagues books once read)

I have also "thanked" people with my products for the following;

homemade soap (thanks Maggie)
a soapstone carved candle holder
a trip to pick up some furniture for me
candles
some electrical work
dvds and cds I cant afford to buy leant to me

I also take samples into work and leave a jar out for donations and people are very generous.....

It isnt what you know, its who you know!

[mrsflibble]

I love using bartering, but it's taken me a long time to lose my fear of just asking people.

I should have a box of wool blankets coming from somewhere soon in return for an aloe vera and a bottle of cherry flibblehooch.


the only problem i find is i do a lot of it online, and tend to forget who i am meant to send stuff to and in return for what hahaha!!!

[Millymollymandy]

I've just bartered! A neighbour phoned and asked if we'd like some plums, they are good purple eating ones and as our greengages were not at all sweet this year for some really sad bizarre reason I jumped at the chance. Swapped for a lettuce, 7 cucumbers (currently have about 30 in the fridge) and a jar of my strawberries in syrup.

Turned out to be not that many plums (about 20) and now I've got to translate the strawb recipe and cucumber relish recipe into French (a nightmare) and explain how to sterilise jars in the oven - she does them in her pressure cooker which she find a big pain. We found it hard enough trying to translate my cheesecake recipe into French but my neighbour and most of this hamlet adore my cheesecake!

Aaaarrrrgggh! Mind you one of these days I'll get them into chutney and then teach them about cheddar cheese and pickle sarnies.