Canadian Finance Blog

Posted: 02 May 2011 02:00 AM PDT

By now, you have probably already been hit in some way by the downturn in the economy that has taken place over the past few years. It has been a hard time for just about everyone. Fortunately, the downturn has revealed some new and time-worn methods of saving money while still providing the necessities. One of these methods is bartering! It may sound silly, but trading your services or excess goods for items and other services is a great way to save money.

How to Get Started

If this sounds like a fantastic idea to you, then you have just learned what thousands of other thrifty people are doing to help themselves get along during these tough times. Getting started with bartering is easy. The first thing you need to do is make a list of everything that you can trade or provide as a service to other people. It may be nice to sit around and think about all the things you might be able to get for free through bartering, but it just won't work if you don't have anything to trade in return. Don't worry though, most people have an item or skill set that they can exchange.

Here are a few examples of things that just about anyone can barter:

• Tutoring – use your knowledge to barter with

• Odd jobs and handy work – utilizing skills that you have

• Variations of your day job – your profession may have skills you can barter

• Cooking

• Tools – share tools with neighbours so everyone does not have to purchase the same tools. One neighbour may have a large ladder and another certain power tools. By working together with your neighbourhood you can save money.

Where to Find Other Traders

Now that you know what you can trade, it is time to find the people that have what you need. You can start by searching online for a bartering club in your area. There is a good chance that a club already exists around you if you live in a highly populated city. Simply search for a "bartering club" or "bartering group" plus the name of your city. This should return several results in your local area.

You have a few choices to make if there are no bartering clubs in your area. First, you can contact the businesses you would like to trade with directly and see if they are interested in what you are trading. You will be surprised at how many people will think this is a cool idea and will be willing to barter with you. This will work much better with small and private companies, as larger corporations will not allow something like this. The second way to find what you need is to start your own bartering club.

Create Your Own Bartering Club

This will take some considerable effort. However, you will have provided a great value to your community if you are able to get a group of people together on a regular basis that are interested in trading with each other. Try taking out an advertisement in a local paper or distributing flyers around town. If you get the word out to enough people, you will most certainly find a few who would like to join your bartering group.

Now is the time to stop feeling bad about the poor economy. It's time to start doing something to improve your way of life. If you follow the simple suggestions in this article, you will be well on your way to successful bartering.

Author Bio: Gina Harris writes on many topics, including how to make money fast and make money online.

Barter Your Services and Save a Fortune originally appeared on Canadian Finance Blog on May 2, 2011.