Win a $50 Amazon Gift Certificate

Thanks to our users, our community has experienced an immense growth in the past months. Numerous new users joined, a lot of items were offered and many services were swapped. To thank everybody we are announcing a sweepstakes starting on September 1^st 2010 to give you the chance to win a $50 AMAZON Gift Certificate.

It only takes a few seconds to participate:

- retweet the following message on TWITTER:

“Win a free Apple iPod on #Barterquest. Find Information on http://tinyurl.com/29n44jp“

or

– Become a fan of BarterQuest on FACEBOOK and post on our wall what you like about BarterQuest or bartering in general.

or

– Register on BarterQuest and invite your friends.

By tweeting on Twitter AND posting on Facebook AND inviting friends you increase your chances to win. Do your best and have fun!

The winner will be announced on October 11^th, 2010.

No cash? No problem, if you barter

originally posted by A. Kawlowski on http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/09/02/bartering.rise/index.html

(CNN) — Miriam Brown has always wanted to visit Cape Cod, but when she recently began to plan a trip and found out she would have to pay $200 or more a night for lodging, her dream vacation seemed out of reach.
Miriam Brown and her husband bartered their services for room and board on Cape Cod.

Brown, who lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, is an accountant. Her husband is a home renovations contractor.

Like many people dealing with a soft real estate market and high food and gas prices, they just don’t have that kind of extra cash for a trip.

“I have traveled a lot in prior years, but after [Hurricane] Katrina, there’s just no money for traveling,” Brown said.

So she still plans to go, but she won’t spend any cash at all on lodging.

Brown has joined the growing ranks of Americans who are bartering — trading goods and services without exchanging money — as a way to cope with tough economic times.

Brown posted an ad in the barter community last month, offering to trade her accounting skills and her husband’s knack for home repairs in exchange for room and board on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

She has lots of company.

“When the economy turns unfriendly, users become far more creative to get their everyday tasks done,” Susan MacTavish Best said.

Swapping ‘to get by’

Other Web sites that put Americans in touch with like-minded people who are willing to trade everything under the sun have also seen a boost in traffic.

“I think a few years ago it was more for fun,” said Jessica Hardwick.

“But we’ve seen a real shift in the last year, and especially an increase in the last few months, where I think people are really doing it to get by.”

Some of the most popular items to trade for late this summer were school uniforms, which some parents found they could not afford to buy for their children, Hardwick said.

Experts aren’t surprised Americans are becoming more financially creative during an economic downturn.
Dealing with the economy

• 67 percent of consumers have haggled in recent months, compared with 33 percent in 2006

• 61 percent of consumers now regularly use a shopping list, compared with 35 percent last fall

• 70 percent of shoppers now look primarily for “the deal” in the Sunday inserts, compared with 51 percent last fall

“Historically, when times get tough, you see a 50 percent-plus increase in bartering as a way for people to be able to buy things or get things and do it economically,” said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group.

The company talks with thousands of consumers every week to gauge their spending habits and attitudes.

A couple of years ago, many Americans had $500 to spend at the end of the month, but that money has evaporated because of rising prices, Beemer said.

“We’ve never had a time, at least in my lifetime, where you have food and fuel going up at the same time. So it isn’t a question of buying things, it’s a question of buying nothing,” Beemer said.

Breast implants and a horse

Businesses have long recognized the benefits of bartering, and there are hundreds of barter networks set up across the country to fill their needs.

They use barter credits as currency, so a plumber in need of a filling doesn’t need to search for a dentist’s office with plumbing problems to make a deal. He can fix a leaky pipe for one member of a network and use the credits he earned for that job at any other.

“Really, there are no limits to it. We trade for just about anything you can think of,” Michael Krane said.

Bartering on this scale is also robust in tough economic times. Krane said his exchange has seen a 20 percent rise in barter transaction volume in the first six months of this year.

A longtime client is Thomas Forrest, an orthodontist in suburban Pittsburgh who barters his services for everything from office improvements to stationery. His practice hasn’t been affected by the economic downturn, Forrest said, but some of his patients seem glad to be able to visit him under the barter arrangement.

“I think if you have a business owner who has children in need of braces, I sense a gratitude that that’s available,” Forrest said.

Barter exchanges must carefully document all trades, since the Internal Revenue Service considers income from bartering as taxable. However, a barter exchange “does not include arrangements that provide solely for the informal exchange of similar services on a noncommercial basis,” according to the IRS.

In New Orleans, Brown and her husband are getting ready to go to Cape Cod after finding a taker for her bartering offer. The couple will work five hours a day in exchange for staying in “a beautiful three-bedroom house right in the center of it all,” Brown said.

“We can do a lot more if we don’t have to pay for room and board,” she added.

originally posted from models & moguls on http://www.modelsandmoguls.com/2010/08/05/history-of-bartering-and-money/

History Of Bartering And Money

Money makes the world go round.

Money is the root of all evil.

A fool and his money are soon parted

Few things directly affect the quality of our lives more than money.

• Where we can live
• How we must spend our time each day.
• Who we can date
• What we eat
• Where we go to school
• How healthy we are.

Money may not buy happiness, but it does buy freedom and options.

By the time most of us can talk, we realize money is something that’s very, very important.

Yet as much as money influences our lives, most of us go through our entire lives without really understanding what money really is.

Here is a brief and simple article on the definition and the history of money for the average person.

The word money comes from the Latin word “moneta” which means, “warning.”

By itself, money is nothing except maybe a strip of paper or a bit of metal. Sometimes and in some places, money can be a sea shell, a bead, a rock or even a lump of salt.

Nowadays, much of the world’s money doesn’t even exist in real life….its just bits of data on an outdated computer, hidden away in a dingy basement somewhere.

If you can’t eat it or wear it, then what good is it?

The value of money has nothing to do with what you can physically do with it.

Money gets its value from being a “medium of exchange, a unit of measurement and a storehouse for wealth.”

Money lets you trade goods and services and allows you to “save” value for future purchases.

If you are a chicken farmer and have a bunch of eggs, you can only “save” your eggs for but so long. But you can trade your eggs for money (sell them) and save your money almost indefinitely (barring inflation)

The value of money comes when everybody will accept it as payment for goods or services provided.

So how and when did people start using money?

As far as historians know, people have been using money for no less then 3,000 years.

Before then, people mostly traded or “bartered” for what they wanted.

“I’ll give you 100 eggs, if you give me your goat.”

“I’ll give you 4 goats, for your lion skin coat”.

“I’ll give you 10 lion skin coats if you let me have your daughter”

Bartering is great system of exchange which is still used today!

But bartering has it’s problems.

People often tend to disagree on what’s a fair trade. Then theres that issue again that sometimes the things we trade have expiration dates on them.

Money helps solve both of those problems.

Over time, crude “prehistoric currencies” evolved where people went from trading things like food, animal hides, salt, weapons and tools to standard mediums of exchange.

Ancient Chinese Cutlery

Tools and weapons, like arrowheads, spades and hoes (both the garden tool and the other kind) became some of the earliest mediums of exchange for pre-historic man.

But who wants have to keep reaching in their pockets and get their hands cut handling sharp objects over and over again?

Around 1,100 B.C., the ancient Chinese started making miniature rounded replicas of their tools and weapons. These became some of the first coins.

Coins and Currency

At around 600 B.C, the King of Lydia (the area now known as Turkey) began “minting” coins out of a natural mix of silver and gold (called electrum) and then stamping pictures on them to let people know how much each coin was worth.

This new form of currency helped Lydia to become a wealthy kingdom by increasing domestic and international trade.

(Though Lydia’s wealth could not protect it from being conquered by the Persian Empire.)

China Kicks Economic Ass…Even 2500 years ago

By the time European Marco Polo got to China in 1,200 A.D., the Chinese had a well developed paper monetary system.

And they meant business. Just like how American bills say “In God We Trust,” Ancient Chinese bills said “All counterfeiters will be decapitated.”

Europe stayed big on coins as currency for a minute, especially after they started bringing in more gold and silver from The New World.

Only thing was, lugging gold and silver currency everywhere started to become a real pain, so gradually banks started to issue “bank notes” that were easier to carry around and could be taken into the bank and exchanged for their face value of silver or gold coins.

Of course people started trading these bank notes for goods and services as though the notes were the gold/silver coins themselves.

Some historians say that the first paper currency issued by European governments, as opposed to banks, were actually issued by the colonial governments of North America!

This was because colonist would run out of money waiting for shipments between Europe and the colonies.

Instead of going back to bartering the colonial governments would just issue paper IOUs which were traded like money.

For instance part of the history of money in  Canada, involves how,around 1685, French soldiers would use playing cards signed by the Governor like cash.

History Of Paper Money

The more people started using paper money, the more international trade took place.

As Banks, Royals and Rich people started buying currencies from other countries, the first currency markets started to emerge.

If a King( or Queen) could keep a stable rule over their country then their countries currency would be stable and that country would had an advantage over other countries, trading goods internationally.

Currency wars were waged where countries would try to affect the value of the competitor’s currency by

• driving currency value up to make enemy’s exports too expensive
• driving currency down to reduce the enemy’s buying power (and ability to pay for war)
• eliminating the enemy’s currency all together.

(Hmmh wonder how much things have changed since then?)
“Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws.” – Mayer Amschel Rothschild, 1790

So is money really “the root of all evil”?

Who knows (I don’t).

But what I do know is that, no matter what people tell you, money is the untold story behind  most of what we hear on the evening news.

And if you want money to be a solution in your life, rather then a problem, you need to know everything you can about it.

Originally posted on http://www.usmagazine.com/momsbabies/news/edie-falco-i-buy-unisex-clothes-for-my-kids-to-save-money—needs-pic-2010287

Edie Falco: I Buy “Unisex” Clothes for My Kids to Save Money

Edie Falco doesn’t go overboard shopping for her children, Anderson and Macy.

“It’s hard to justify spending a lot of money on kid’s clothes because they grow out of them in five minutes,” Falco, 47, tells UsMagazine.com. “And my kids don’t really care what they wear.”

“So I occasionally buy something for my son and he wears it until he grows out of it, and my daughter wears it,” the Nurse Jackie star goes on. “I just make sure that it’s unisex.”

Falco, who adopted her Anderson in March 2005 and Macy in April 2008, says she asks her 94-year-old grandmother for parenting advice.

“[She] raised five kids who back in the day was doing everything. Grandpa was out making the money, and grandma was feeding one kid with her hand and rocking another kid in the cradle with her foot,” says Falco.

“She would explain to me about patience. It’s about teaching yourself to be patient. We all move at a pace and get used to it. And then you’re with kids who have their own schedule and own time frame. Part of me wants to just say ‘C’mon let’s go.’ But they’re not having it.”

“You can come to loggerheads if you don’t learn how to breathe and learn how to let them take the time they need. You have to let them be sometimes — to let them look at a book to let them brush their teeth,” adds the Emmy winner.

originally posted on http://littlehousesouthernprairie.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/bartering-to-save-money-share-your-experiences

Bartering to save money — share your experiences

I would love to live a life where, for reasons much more about Ain’t Got Extra Cash than fuzzy-wuzzy-community-building (though hell, why not), a nice chunk of what I need is exchanged through bartering.

So far my efforts have been not so hot. When I threw out my back and then lived in flabby-ass-confirming misery for two weeks, I posted a possible trade on Craigslist: Work in my garden, and in exchange, I’ll do some sort of writing/editing/tutoring work. I got two bites. One from a guy who wanted me to tutor his daughter, but when I emailed him back for specifics, he never responded; one woman said she didn’t do gardening work but if I needed my house cleaned and could pay her to do it, she was interested.

In the coming weeks, I’m doing to try some dog care swapping with another stay at home mom in my neighborhood. Basically, she’ll watch my pups when I go away for a few days and vice versa. I feel good about it, and if it works, this relationship could save us hundreds in kennel fees.

But what keeps me from pursuing a full-on Life O’ Trading is …

1) For some of these jobs, like dog care or anything where I allow someone in my house, even when I’m there, I need to feel like I can really trust them. And to really trust them, I need to really know them. And if I really know them … I feel guilty about asking them to do any work, even if they’re getting work from me back, because everyone I know is already stressed out and busy enough, you know? In some ways it’s easier to hire a stranger who you can imagine has nothing to do all day except for help you. The unfortunate downside, of course, being hiring costs money. Is bartering best with some magical level of acquaintance?

2) Worries about inequity. I already suspect I’m going to be calling on my dog friend for help more than she will need to call on me. How do you keep things fair, and from one side from feeling overused?

3) That Person. The people who make you feel like you just should have done the project yourself or hired someone. You know, the usually-cool friend who sincerely volunteers to help, but doesn’t follow though because they’re “really busy right now,” and then you’re stuck with more work because you counted on them and shouldn’t have and need to figure out Plan B. We all know people like this, right? Let’s name names in the comments section! Just kidding.

I’d love to hear others’ experiences in bartering (or just, you know, a deal where you help out a friend and vice versa), and any tips you have to share!

Originally posted on http://canadiansavings.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/bartering

Bartering

Last night at the Gail club meeting we attend, the topic of Bartering came up. What is Bartering? Bartering is simply trading one thing for another. Say I have a goat and I want a chicken, if I can find someone with a chicken who wants a goat, we can exchange these products without needing to first convert the goat and chicken into money.

Believe it or not, money was invented to make bartering easier. Using money means you have a set medium on which everything is valued. Houses, cars, cows, goats and chickens all have a dollar figure associated with them. If a chicken is worth $10 and a goat is worth $15 dollars and as a chicken owner I can’t find anyone willing to trade, or anyone that wants a chicken but owns a goat, I can sell off the chickens to people who want chickens and then find a goat owner to buy the goats from.

Money enables the transactions of goods to happen relatively easily. Back to bartering. In the meeting a member of the club mentioned there was a bartering society in the Kitchener and Waterloo area. While trading services is something that I have seen done a lot in my family, it is not something I’ve ever tried. Believe it or not, Bartering enabled my dad to pay for my teeth cleaning at the dentist, along with his benefits from work, printing business cards allowed my teeth to stay clean. When I needed a counselor, printing up billing pads for them got my father a 50% discount. My father traded something he was good at, running a printing press, for services he needed for his family, and boy did I need those services when I was a teenager.

The bartering society is different from the informal and very direct form of bartering my father did. They have a currency in the system. Apparently called “Barter dollars” it allows for the easy exchange of dollars for a service you need and the ability to sell services you have to get barter dollars from others. Basically it is money in a closed system. You can’t take the barter dollars and spend them outside of the barter society. This is simply because if you took them to a Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart employees would look at you funny as if you were giving them Canadian Tire money.

So why haven’t I tried to barter? I’m great at fixing computers, but that becomes tedious. I work in a cell phone company, but there is nothing there in that required skill set that can be bartered away. I know my stuff when it comes to personal finance, but dishing out advice to people in exchange for something is highly regulated and I really don’t need the headaches that come from over stepping my bounds.

Have you ever Bartered? have you ever joined a bartering society? Is there a secret barter handshake?

Originally posted by Jules Vandermint on http://tinyurl.com/25wwwh4

Some Top Advantages Of Using Bartering For Your Small Business

Barter is something that is becoming an increasingly popular method of commerce. If you would like to take advantage of the benefits of using bartering for your small business then this is certainly something you could look into. As such, here are some of the benefits that you will see when doing so.

One of the main benefits is the fact that barter increases new business opportunities. You can attract customers and referrals who would not have known about your business had you not joined a Barter network. Members of the network will be a lot more likely to choose you over your competition as there will be no outlay of cash and you can instead use Barter credits. This will then increase your cash sales due to the additional exposure and through referrals.

Your customer base can therefore be massively expanded through your network as well. While you can maintain your current base it will be possible for you to add new customers and new clients into your business through referrals and good word-of-mouth.

You can also improve on your current way of life through joining a network like this as well. You can use your barter credits for any sort of service that you want in the network. And even if it does not, you are able to recruit any other business into the network. In many cases, by doing this you may even receive a bonus for doing so in the form of credits.

If you are interested in joining a Barter network then it is probably best to do your research online. This is another benefit and you do not have to live in the state in which the network operates in order to take part.

All in all, these are some of the primary advantages that you will see if you want to use bartering for your business.

Writer Jules Vandermint describes herself as a “versitile author.” Jules enjoys writing about just about anything including previous articles about , 4 mil poly bags and clear poly bags.

Originally posted on http://mioritausa.com/how-to-afford-summer-camp-in-a-recession/

How to Afford Summer Camp in a Recession

When you think of summer camp, the word “affordable” probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. And if you’re like other parents concerned about money in this awful economy, you might be wondering how to afford summer camp for your kids this summer. But don’t worry!

There are many things you can do to make the cost of camp more affordable and lesson the financial burden of giving your child a fantastic camp experience this year. Here are three top strategies you can use to save money at camp for your kids right now:

Early Bird Discounts

Early bird discounts are perhaps the best known and highly publicized of your available summer camp discounts. Here’s how Early Bird Discounts work.

Camps generally offer two sets of tuition rates: the regular price, and the Early Bird Price.

If you sign up for camp by a certain date, the Early Bird Price can save you money. For example, one camp in Los Angeles charges $5 per day less when you sign up for camp by March 1.

Since the price increases by $5 per day after March 1, it obviously it pays to sign up for camp sooner rather than later!

Barter

In bleak economic times (like this recession!), bartering can be one of the smartest money-saving strategies you can use. Summer camps want to save money just like you do, so this is a win-win strategy for you both.

Maybe you own an advertising agency and you have a few kids you’d like to send to camp. You might be able to provide advertising services to the camp in exchange for a fantastic camp experience for your kids.

Here’s another bartering concept that actually happened last year. A day camp in Los Angeles needed a nurse, and the nurse wanted to send her kids to camp. So the nurse ended up working at the camp and sent her kids in exchange.

The best way to start bartering is to consider what you might have to offer, and then pitch your idea to the camp director. He or she might be very open to your suggestion!

Sibling Discounts

Most camps offer sibling discounts, but they may not advertise the fact these discount are available. So, if you have more than one child attending camp, make sure you ask the camp director if they offer sibling discounts.

The discount will vary from camp to camp, but generally, the most common sibling discount we’ve seen is 5% off each additional camper beyond the first child.

Five percent may not sound like a lot, but given how much a high-quality summer camp experience costs these days, 5% off can save you a load of money!

Hopefully these three money-saving tips will help you save money off your camp tuition this year. Good luck!

Originally posted by Sequoia on http://tinyurl.com/24blygt

4 Ways to Succesfully Barter for Real Estate

If you are short of cash, it is possible to barter for real estate. You may not qualify for a mortgage that covers the purchase price, or you may not have enough cash for the down payment. In these scenarios, you may be able to barter for the real estate you want to purchase.

Step 1: Determine What Part of Deal to Barter

There are many different parts of the transaction that you will be able to barter including the down payment or a discount on price, commissions or closing costs. You can barter for part or all of the real estate purchase.

Step2: Determine What to Offer

For bartering to be successful, you must offer something of value that the other party will accept in exchange. The most common items used in barter are cars, boats, services, goods or other properties.

Step 3: Determine Value

Both parties must agree to the value of the item that is being used in the barter. Value can be determined by appraisals, sticker cost or comparables. The value will be used to determine the monetary value offset in the real estate transaction.

Step 4: Exchange

The attorney or title agent handling the closing will need to account for the value of the barter in the settlement statement. He or she will need to verify that the items to be bartered are exchanged.

Originally posted on http://tinyurl.com/2alytab

The Benefits of Bartering Goods and Services Between Private Individuals
Bartering is not a new concept. It’s been around probably for as long as man has walked the earth. In fact, long before money existed people traded goods for services or services for other services. That’s how commerce took place. Today, bartering is as popular as it has ever been, particularly among small businesses that are often strapped for cash. The internet features hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of barter exchange websites that have been set up to help small, struggling businesses survive and even thrive by providing a way for them to access needed goods or services they might not otherwise be able to afford. The owner of a shoe store may trade a pair of loafers to the dentist for a check-up and a teeth whitening treatment if both are members of the same barter exchange and have access to one another. An interior decorator may barter her professional service for a pair of stylish earrings and the transaction, without the exchange of any money, will be helpful to both businesses. But bartering is not exclusive to small businesses. It is also commonplace today among ordinary consumers – private citizens. That’s because the depressed economic climate has left many people short of funds, without employment or facing other hardships. Many regular folks just don’t have the money needed to buy the goods or services they want or need. But, they often have something they can trade. Barter exchange websites exist for consumers, too. And every day more and more people with access to computers are joining these websites and taking full advantage of the opportunities that exist on them. In fact, online communities like barterquest provide environments that encourage members to trade goods and services without any movement of money. Not a single dime changes hands. These websites are adding members daily … lots of them.

Does it really work for people who commit themselves to the idea? The answer is a resounding yes, particularly in these economically-depressed times when money problems are common in many households. Consider the case of a woman I will call Rachel (not her real name). She and her husband Ted (not his real name, either) live in a Midwestern city and have always dreamed of vacationing in Cape Cod. For Rachel, in particular, it’s been a lifelong dream. And Rachel and Ted were finally going to realize that dream … until they found out that decent lodging in the area would cost about $200 a night, somewhat beyond their vacation budget. In most cases, that shortness of available cash would absolutely squelch any chance of the vacation becoming a reality. However, given the current proliferation of barter exchange websites for consumers, Rachel seized upon an idea. She advertised her husband Ted’s professional accounting services in exchange for lodging for 3 or 4 nights in a Cape Cod hotel, motel or similar kind of lodging. There are, of course, thousands of other examples of successful swaps or barter exchanges between consumers in which each party to the exchange ended up a winner. In fact, each year, as summer ends and fall arrives – along with the beginning of a new school year — many hard-pressed moms are able to trade a coveted service for school uniforms for their school-age kids. That, of course, saves a costly trip to the clothing store. Parents and older kids, especially those already in college, enjoy trading for school textbooks which any advanced student knows tends to be alarmingly expensive. Clearly, barter works as well for individual consumers as it does for small businesses. And, as is true for small businesses, the consumer who engages in bartering meets many new friends (businesspeople meet and get many new customers) … enjoys a transaction in which he or she almost always wins … and develops a pastime (or habit) that often turns into a compelling passion. There is more for ordinary consumers to like about bartering, as well. It provides a real opportunity to move and rid yourself of old, dust-collecting items (just as would happen if you conducted a yard sale) … enjoy the true fun that comes from trading (you’ll be like a “kid in a candy store”) … and, of course, when you trade or barter, you save money. That is particularly meaningful now, in these difficult economic times. What’s more, you may also be able to acquire goods that you’ve always wanted, but could never afford (such as expensive, if slightly-used, luxury items, including clothing and jewelry, exotic vacations or great electronic merchandise for your home)… or services, including health or cosmetic care and treatment … or professional services, such as accounting, tax returns, even legal advice just because you’re a member of a website exchange community and you’re willing to give up something to get something in return – with absolutely no exchange of cash. So now you need to ask yourself: is bartering something that I can enjoy and profit from? If you’re like millions of other people, the answer is probably yes. And even if you are someone who stands apart from the crowd, the answer is still likely to be yes. Bartering is a social experience … and generally quite enjoyable for those who participate in it. In all likelihood, it is something you will enjoy for its social aspects and profit from, as well, because it will enable you to acquire needed goods and services without the use of your hard-earned money.