Cash poor, talent rich

Single mother uses bartering to gain more financial freedom

By Leah Mayes
The Portland Upside
August2009

Photo by Shane Reeves

Leah uses her kitchen skills to barter for goods and services such as food, health care and tattoo work.

I’m a single mother who sometimes finds it difficult to make ends meet. It’s hard for me to find the time to work, care for my 5-year-old, and still be able to get a massage, acupuncture, and save time to play. To be able to afford to go places and do things outside of our home is a challenge. In short, money can create a lot of stress for me. At times, I find myself getting overwhelmed and turning into a person I prefer to avoid.

On those days I’ve thought I would love to do without money, or be able to do with less, not by sacrificing the things that are important to me, but by using a different way to fund the things I need and want.

Thankfully, I’ve found an answer: bartering.

There once was a time when money was not traded in exchange for goods. Animals, handmade furniture, skills and crops were the currency. When you went to market or to seek out assistance from someone with skills you had not mastered, you traded with what you did have, what you could make, or with the knowledge that you possessed.

Midwives would trade their services for herbs, food, farm animals. A carpenter would trade his handcrafted furnishings for tools, horses, and seed. Wagons were brought to market filled with handmade rugs, clothes, and pots and would return full again with items needed to live.

When did we lose our trade line? The traditional system of bartering seems like a long way off in this society of hourly wages, 401K plans and retirement packages. Yet it has been my experience that bartering, like many things, has not disappeared completely. It has merely hidden in the background waiting for the right time.

I’ve been fortunate to tap into a good barter system in my life, bringing food, alternative health care, massage, child care, gardening skills and much more to my family. Money is great for some things, even needed for others, but not for everything. And in a society where the mighty dollar rules, it liberates me to be able to fall back on such a tried and true concept of exchange.

I have thousands of dollars worth of tattoo work on my body, for example, and I’ve actually paid very little cold hard cash for any of it. I have been able to trade with skills of my own such as cooking, house-cleaning, weeding, harvesting, child care, and also with my own art work.

Often I run into people who want to try bartering but don’t know what skills they have to trade. That’s when I ask, can you cook, clean or draw? Can you garden, knit, or do you have a truck to loan for hauling? Are you good at math, sewing or cutting hair? We all have skills that can benefit each other. We all have talents, tools, and ideas. And yes, we all have needs, so let’s help each other out.

By trial and error I have found that I will never know if someone is open to barter until I ask. So get creative! Maybe you can get that dental work you’ve needed. Or learn a new trade. Perhaps the perfect baby-sitter could use the extra zucchini in your garden.

The benefits of bartering are endless. Through bartering I have created relationships within my community, made friends, established a sense of confidence in myself and showed my child other ways of getting what she needs. With the money I save I can go camping or out to the movies with a friend. And that is always an upside.

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Leah Mayes, an all-around groovy lady, lives in Northeast Portland where she works hard to keep the peace while engaging in many adventures. She is currently working on three different children’s books.