(Image credit: QuestionandPlanters)
The other day I was reflecting on how blessed I’ve been over the years by a community of families (mostly women) in my church. I began thinking of all the ways we’ve swapped items and services and cared for one another and I wanted to share some of these ideas with you, too. When we work as a community to share and help one another, we all win!
After thinking of all the different ways I could structure this post, I decided it might be simplest to just share some of the things we’ve done in bullet form. Here are the ones I could think of, and undoubtedly there have been others:
- Taught each other skills (couponing, gardening, etc.)
- Swapped coupons and stockpile items
- Swapped garden seeds, plants and produce
- Gone in together for bulk food purchases (meat, farm produce)
- Provided free childcare for one another from time to time
- Swapped lawn equipment and tools
- Shared less commonly used kitchen appliances such as canning equipment
- Swapped freezer meals
- Swapped clothing and accessories
- Swapped professional services (for instance I’ve swapped ad space before)
- Brought one another meals when someone had a baby or has been ill
- Shared a maternity wardrobe (I’m not kidding – some ladies in our church have been basically sharing the same set of maternity clothes!)
- Carpooled
I would encourage you to meet up with some of your friends or neighbors to see what you might do to help one another in this regard. If there’s someone struggling with paying childcare, might there be a potential swap of services? If someone needs help getting a garden started, maybe they could make some freezer meals and organize a work party? If you’ve been needing to use a pressure washer and your friend has one, maybe you could ask to do something in return as opposed to buying one yourself? With a little creativity, you might find that money can be saved in new ways among friends.
What things have you done as part of a group to save money? I’d love to hear what you’ve done too!
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Hi Angela
Though I am not as involved in a smaller community as you are, I recently read a blog on MSN about bartering or swapping for items and thought it was a great way to keep the tax man out of the transaction while gaining an item I need in exchange for something I have that someone else may want or need. I have a bunch of DVDs that I no longer want or watch and need some hiking equipment. I’ve posted an an and gotten a couple of responses. Trading goods and services is a great way to purge unwanted items while getting needed items. I’ve seen services listed as well (i.e. childcare in exchange for accounting services etc).
Such a beautiful and thoughtful article, Angela.
I don’t really have a group like this. I have friends that we share hand-me-down clothes if we have them, and a couple of us share some canned items. I can’t really get my friends to coupon, except for my best friend who lives in California, and we occasionally share coupons. So I guess I share among friends this way, but not in a whole “group” together.
Just to clarify, this isn’t a super organized group. Just friends from my church that over time have done stuff like this for one another. Your comment reminded me that we’ve shared baby equipment and children’s clothing too! No doubt, we’ve saved a bundle that way, too!
Hi Angela, just stumbled upon your blog and had to comment on this as I think it is an important topic. Here in the town my wife and I live in we have a group of friends and neighbors and we are constantly helping each other out. It really goes a long way to not only save money but build a sense of community. Things we do include clothing swaps, book swaps, team shopping at Costco, and work weekends for husbands where we help and offer expertise on outdoor projects. It really is a terrific way to live and a huge $$ saver. Great blog, I’ll be back!
Welcome, Kyle! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
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