In Praise of Bartering and How to

Time to read 5 minutes

During the pandemic, bartering helped me to grew my local connections, helped me to learn new skills and ultimately, got me into knitting.

At the time, we lived in Bristol. I worked from home and I had the time to tend to a lot of plants. I bought, propagated and cared for a very large variety of house and garden plants 2020 was a confusing time.

Back when people were still panic-buying and supermarket brawling over toilet roll. Through net curtains, we spied the neighbours’ weekly food shop deliveries with judgement and suspicion. Just me?

But suddenly a shift happened. When I was prolifically baking and we were going through a lot of eggs every week, and so was everyone else, it seemed.

The supermarket shelves were empty. Helplessly scrolling social media, I found someone selling their chickens’ eggs on Facebook Marketplace.

I persuaded my husband to drive me to meet this enterprising egg dealer in a deserted Lidl carpark at 8pm on a Sunday afternoon.

It was a clandestine encounter – we made the transaction through our respective car window sand I drove away triumphant. I was in possession of eggs!

Local Bartering and Exchange

So I thought, maybe instead of a transaction, like any other involving goods for money, what’s to stop us trading what we have for what we need? Thence I got into trades.

It was a time for bartering. Various local Facebook groups popped up where you got to trade goods and skills, like for like or sometimes not, but it didn’t matter.

As long as the people involved in the trade were happy, that was all that mattered.

I met a lovely lady on one of these groups. We’ll call her T. I decided I wanted to teach myself to knit but I didn’t know where to start nor did I have any materials.

I posted about my knit-curiousity in one of the more laissez faire barter groups where everyone was encouraged to post, request and get stuck in.

T responded and kindly offered up a couple of sets of her grandmother’s old knitting needles made from old aluminium aeroplanes and some acrylic waste yarn.

I was stoked. I was ready to begin my knitting journey. In return I gave her some houseplants I had freshly propagated.

Moneyless Exchanges and Making Connections

This was one of the more positive things to come out of the pandemic for me. Wholesome value propositions for skills and goods you had or had cultivated in exchange for skills and goods you wanted or needed.

T had also been kind in the after care of the exchange by sending me a couple messages to check how I was getting on.

She also affably made herself available to me on a Zoom call, showing me how to cast on when countless YouTube videos had failed. It was almost like a bartering customer service for which I am grateful.

I soon learned how to successfully cast on and I was off. Never share needles except for knitting needles.

A Knit Exchange

I was also able to use this new found skill to leverage other bartering exchanges.

I responded to an artist called “Nev” who was willing to exchange some of his fun animal artwork for…something, anything. So I offered to knit him a cowl and send it off to him.

These are just some examples of past bartering exchanges. In truth, I have been able to make countless moneyless exchanges to access items or skills I may not have been able to obtain when I wanted them.

5 Practical Rules of Engagement for Bartering

However, though we may be talking about an ancient practice, there are some sensible precautions to be mindful of. Here are some practical tips that I picked up along the way should you be interested in participating:

1. For in person trades, a neutral location is best. Sure, I have made trades on other people’s doorsteps or in their homes in the past, upon their invitation. For everyone’s safety though, neutral locations are best.
2. An extension of the above – don’t go alone for the trade if you are bartering with a stranger.
3. Try not to barter when desperate. You may end up trading over the odds or just generally make a decision you may regret.
4. Diversify. Look at your resources and try to have a wide variety of things you can trade. Skills, your time, home and garden items and tools, food, hobby accoutrements, personal care products, clothes etc…all make excellent items to trade.
5. Look at your skills and resources and trade accordingly. Trade what you can afford to lose (because you have multiple or sure you will not need or use it later. No one wants to barter with something and regret decisions later.

I hope to continue being able to barter and exchange. Consider this a gentle invitation for (sensible) bartering propositions.

*Ironically, I now only bake eggless cakes using egg substitutes.

Related: Comparing the Cost: Buying Organic vs Growing

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