The reason this made me happy is simple. My neighbor lets me put my three Miniature Horses in that pasture during the spring and summer, something which saves me a lot of money on hay. She also lets me train my driving Mini, Jewel, on the pasture’s hills. (If you want to do combined driving, you have to condition your horse to drive on hills.)
I usually will pay a small amount for the privilege, $30 a month or so, but for the last year, the pasture has been all but unusable. Weeds had grown so high I couldn’t mow them with my lawn tractor and the elderly gentleman who had mowed the pasture once a year for a very reasonable price just couldn’t physically handle the work anymore. And my friend couldn’t afford to pay more.
So the pasture was transformed into a get-out-your-machete plot of weeds that no one could really use. (That can happen very fast in Texas climate, where the weeds are much more drought tolerant than most grass.) So when I saw it getting mowed, I was delighted
.
I called my friend. How had she managed it?
In a word: barter.
The man with the tractor needed an ad done for a horse publication. My friend is a whiz with both Photoshop and the latest in layout programs. She did a camera-ready ad for him and gave him $25 for gas; he attacked the weeds. Two problems solved, and except for the $25, no money out of pocket for either of them.
I wrote a post about barter some time ago, but in this era of increasingly tight cash and tighter budgets, I think it’s worth reminding people that they shouldn’t rule out barter as a way to get what you need. Right now, I need some driving lessons from an expert. I know an expert “whip” (that’s what you call someone who drives horses) who needs some video of her well-trained gelding being driven to use as a marketing tool. I have a video camera and I know how to use it. If we can set this up, we’ll both get what we need with no money required.
To barter successfully, take stock of what you have in the way of knowledge, skills or unwanted items. Then look around to see who has what you need and might need what you have. Can you swap? A skill for an item, labor for training, expertise for expertise? Make sure when you’re setting up the trade that you both understand what you expect to receive and what you’re offering by making a list of specifics. In my friend’s case, she was willing to do a certain size ad, containing a certain number of pictures, created to fit the requirements of a specific publication and she agreed to a deadline. Her barter partner had seen the land he would be mowing, had a good idea of how much gas he’d need and was willing to do the job within a stated length of time. Nailing down such details can help guarantee that both parties to the barter are satisfied.
Where do you find people willing to barter? Check online. Here’s a helpful article from Planet Green to get you started:
One final tip: Keep in mind that the IRS usually considers the “fair market value” of what you receive in a barter as taxable income. For more information on the government’s bartering rules, start with this article at irs.gov.
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