Mom Pack™ Interactive List Rules & Guidelines

The Secret That Will Save You $100s By Linda Formichelli     photo: Ross Whitaker Long before the words "cash, check or charge" became a part of our everyday transactions, we "bought" our goods and services through barter. Need a new hammer? It'll cost you three chickens. Want someone to baby-sit little Glog? Your neighbor will do it if you help her pick berries. An increasing number of women are bartering for everything from pet-sitting services to airline tickets. "Everybody has something to trade, but not everybody has cash," says Tom Langel, CEO of the online barter exchange TradeAway (www.tradeaway.com). With barter, not only do you give your overworked credit cards a breather, but sometimes you can get goods cheaper than if you bought them the usual way. "I believe that through bartering it's possible to get a considerable discount for a product or service," says Langel. If, for example, you trade homemade soaps that would sell for $75 for a massage worth the same amount, but the soaps cost you only $25 to make, you're in effect getting a $75 massage for just $25. Not a bad deal! Women who own small or home-based businesses or who freelance have a ready source of professional products or services for trade. Take Adrienne Biggs, a 38-year-old single mom and publicist in San Rafael, California. "I bartered publicity for a year's supply of custom hand-blended aromatherapy oils," says Biggs. But you don't need to have a professional product to take advantage of bartering. Chances are, your trash is someone else's treasure. "After we put sod down in our yard we had quite a bit left over," says Lisa Rokusek, 37, of St. Louis, Missouri. "We traded it to our neighbor, who specializes in stone-work. He gave us lintels for our windows for free. That work would have cost us about a thousand dollars." What Do You Have to Trade? To get the most out of barter, you must have a talent or product that other people want. So what do potential trading partners desire most? "It's really wide open," says Langel. "Baby-sitting, lawn and pet care, crafts and any kind of hands-on service like painting." Services can make even better swaps than products because they're a renewable resource. None of these ideas work for you? Don't worry. If you have a special talent or a hobby, chances are you have something that other people want. You're a great cook? Trade a week's worth of dinners for a weekend stay at a neighbor's vacation cottage. Yankee Magazine's long-loved "Swapper's Column" has lots of offers for antiques, collectibles and more. Setting the Price You're pretty sure your antique teddy bear is worth one place setting of your favorite china. But how do you know for certain? It takes a little research. "Say you have a car," says Langel. "How do you usually arrive at a fair selling price? You call a used-car dealer or go to the Internet or check out the Kelley Blue Book. And if you're on the other side of the transaction, you'll check values before you barter just as if you were paying cash." For services, call up a similar service provider and ask how much she charges. Many experienced barterers use online auction sites such as eBay (www.ebay.com) to find out what products are worth. Do-It-Yourself Bartering Ready to return to the ways of your ancestors and barter with friends, neighbors and relatives? It's easy to do: Just tell them that you're looking for X and are willing to barter Y. Rokusek's barter circle started out with eight people in St. Louis, but has expanded to over 100 through word of mouth. "It started as a group of friends who wanted to simplify their lives," says Rokusek. To barter with local businesses, explain how your offer will benefit them. For example, you'll brighten up your hairdresser's salon by planting flowers outside in exchange for a free haircut. Stress that these swaps will help the business owners bring in more paying customers—at no cost to them. Cyberspace Opportunities Thanks to the Internet, you can barter with people you'd likely never meet in your everyday life. The online community craigslist (www.craigslist.org), for example, offers a barter section on each of its many regional pages. "Sometimes the ads are very specific—I'd like to trade my 17-inch TV for an iPod—and sometimes they're more along the lines of 'I need a haircut, what do you need?'" says Kythryne Aisling, 26, of New York City. Not long ago on the Boston barter page members were looking to trade hand-built bookshelves for a used scanner, and bartending services for a case of wine. Every day there are roughly 400 new requests. Through craigslist, Aisling traded several hours of her time doing digital photography for a light box designed to treat seasonal affective disorder. "My business partner was having trouble with the lack of light during our first winter in New York, so I put an ad on craigslist to see if anyone wanted to trade my various services for a light box," says Aisling. "Someone needed digital photos of a bunch of little items, and in exchange, I got a used light box that's in pretty good condition." The Web site TradeAway www.tradeaway.com, which charges $3 per listing, offers everything from antiques to time-shares. Users post items they're offering for barter (or for sale) as well as things they'd like to trade for. One recently offered 200 Beanie Babies in exchange for plumbing services. Trading Safely As with any business deal, it pays to be prudent. "I've had a few online barters fall through because I never heard back from the other person," cautions Aisling. If you're trading online, ask to see pictures of the item if none is posted. And get a phone number. "The barters I set up via e-mail alone fall through more often than the ones where I make phone contact first," says Aisling. When bartering for a service, ask for the names of previous customers you can contact to find out what they think of the trader's service. You wouldn't hire a builder, baby-sitter or accountant without first checking his or her background. You should take the same precautions with a swap. To protect yourself, don't be afraid to ask for a contract or to write up one of your own. When Christine Fedruk Long, 34, of Chicago bartered massage sessions for wedding photography, she wrote up a simple contract spelling out everything the two traders agreed to. The photographer's shooting fee was $250 per hour, and Long's rate was $75 per hour, so they agreed on 3 hours of shooting for 10 hours of massage. Start Swapping! With today's economy, bartering is smarter than ever. "These days it's imperative to be creative with your finances and to use what you have to get what you want and need," says Jennifer Svare, a 32-year-old mother of two in Fairbanks, Alaska. "If people learned about bartering and began to barter more, we could all save hundreds—even thousands—of dollars." Where to Barter for Bargains According to the International Reciprocal Trade Association, there are about 700 barter companies worldwide. Listed below are some retail barter groups that operate countrywide. To find a local group, visit the National Association of Trade Exchanges (www.nate.org) and click on the Directory button, then click on your home state. MOM PACK BARTER BOARDS: Looking To Barter AND Have Items To Barter  TRADE USA: www.trade-usa.net; 214-528-6626. VIP Barter: www.vipbarter.com; 858-274-8600. ATX The Barter Co.: www.atxbarter.com; 440-205-9500. Whatever you want to trade, chances are there's a place to do it on the Internet. A few sites are listed here. To find others, check out a search engine such as Google (www.google.com). Enter the terms of your choice plus the word barter. Craigslist: www.craigslist.org; free; click on the city nearest you. Family Trader: www.familytrader.com; free to join, but you pay 7 percent of the item's trade value. Mamabarter.com: www.wearsthebaby.com/mamabarter.html; free; baby clothes, toys, etc. Moms Online Barter Club: www.geocities.com/mommycommunity; free. TradeAway.com: www.tradeaway.com; $3 per listing. The Trader$Club: www.tradersclub.com; monthly membership dues between $4.95 and $49.95. Tune in to "In the Family Circle" on CBS TV's