By Yvonne B | Yahoo! Contributor Network
A few years ago I read Sue Bender's "Plain and Simple", which chronicles her journey to the Amish and the lessons she learned as a result of staying with two Amish families. It was a very nourishing read and one of the themes Bender discusses is that of community. According to the book, the Amish community leave room in their lives to support their fellow community members in practical ways such as harvesting crops or mending clothes and this got me thinking about how we seem to have lost this in our present society.
It's easy to identify the benefits of helping each other out such as the financial savings and the development of closer relationships, but we are all so busy that when the opportunity arises to help our friend or neighbour we often can't take advantage of it. My husband and I decided to start actively seeking out these community exchanges of skills in the form of bartering, meaning both parties would gain from the transaction, in an attempt to see if it would save us money.
[Do these 20 things and you'll always be poor]
We quickly found opportunities with friends who had skills we did not and who also valued the skills that we could offer. Over the last year we have moved furniture for people who had no vehicle, gave tuition, provided homemade freezer meals, baked, babysat and painted amongst other things. The skills we have received in return that we would otherwise have to hire a professional to do include plumbing, installing an electrical fitting, car maintenance and fixing our computer.
When one of our bathroom pipes burst we asked a plumber friend to fix it, which saved us around £75. In exchange, we provided 5 hours of English language tuition to one of their family members. Not long after that our car brake pads needed to be replaced and a few phone calls allowed us to establish it would cost £40 for labour plus the parts. We bought the parts and had a neighbour fit them in exchange for some babysitting, homemade bread and a jar of homemade jam.
Fixing a broken key on a laptop may not seem like much of a job for most people, but it was outside of our comfort zone. My husband asked his techie friend to look at it and in return he transported some bulkier items to their new flat. Our local PC repair shop quoted us £25 to replace the key.
Most of what we have given has cost us very little such as a few loaves of homemade bread or simply consisted of a few hours of our time. We have strengthened our relationship with some of our friends and even neighbours and have been able to offer them something that they value in return, which is very fulfilling.
Yes, with bartering it could be easy to find yourself on the slippery slope of wanting something for nothing or close to nothing in return, so it's important that both sides are happy with the transaction and that respect for each other's time and skills is maintained throughout the process. A quick count of what I can remember bartering over the last year tells me that we have saved around £550 and the experience has been a lot of fun.