10 tips for bartering for goods and services

If money has been tight lately and you've been scrambling to figure out how to get what you need, take comfort: You're certainly not alone. In fact, more and more people in this situation are opening themselves up to the wonders of bartering — that is, exchanging stuff and services for other stuff and services without spending any money at all. Intrigued? Consider these tips.

1Understand how big this is. People are bartering almost anything imaginable these days, from roof repairs to legal services to Pilates sessions to hotel accommodations. To get a sense of the possibilities that exist in the barter economy, visit the barter section of classified ad site craigslist.org for the Tampa Bay area (tampa.craigslist.org/bar/).

2Find local people. Whatever you're interested in bartering — from clothes to DVDs to babysitting — it's not hard to find people who live nearby and share similar interests. Try these sites: Meetup.com; U-Exchange.com; the barter section of craigslist, mentioned in Tip 1; BabysitterExchange.com; and the Freecycle Network, which advocates gifting to help the environment and can steer people toward local trading or bartering organizations.

3Trade business services and products. If you have a business service to offer in exchange for another — say, legal services for a certain quota of printing services — you can make arrangements like this as well. To get started, contact your local chamber of commerce and inquire about a local barter exchange, or visit the Web site of the International Reciprocal Trade Association (www.irta.com) and click on Membership.

4Be aware of tax implications. Particularly if you are in business and are trading goods or services, the transactions must be reported to the IRS as income. To make it a little easier for you, barter clubs usually will monitor your trades and send you paperwork at year-end. For details about bartering and taxes, visit this IRS site: www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc420.html.

5Sick of waiting for your home to sell? Swap homes with someone else. To learn more, visit GoSwap.org (www.goswap.org), Pad4Pad.com (www.pad4pad.com) or DomuSwap.com (www.domuswap.com). You shouldn't go down this path without legal representation, and it may be wise to use a licensed "exchanger" to help you navigate tax land mines. To find one, visit the site of the National Council of Exchangors (www.nce1031.net).

6Swap homes for your next two-week vacation. So maybe you don't want to trade your home forever — but why not try it for your next trip? Home-swap networks allow you to trade homes with people who live where you want to vacation. You can literally save thousands of dollars on a vacation by eliminating hotel costs altogether. To learn more, do an Internet search for the words "home swap" or "home exchange."

7Strike free petsitting deals. Having someone board or care for your pet while you're out of town can cost a small fortune. But you can skip this sky-high expense by trading pet care with a friend or neighbor when you go out of town. If you could use some help finding potential pet sitters who are in the mood to barter, visit BabysitterExchange.com.

8Don't pay for books again. Book clubs such as PaperBackSwap.com make it possible for you to mail a book and get a book in exchange, with no strings attached. At Swaptree.com, you can trade books, CDs, DVDs and video games.

9Throw a clothing-swap party. It's fun to jazz up your wardrobe with new items while offloading neglected clutter from the back of your closet — without spending anything! Organize a night to swap clothes with a group of friends, or find a clothing swap through Meetup.com.

10Protect yourself. Be extremely careful about shipping anything valuable to a stranger you met over the Internet, especially before you've had an opportunity to see what you'll be getting in exchange. If you're swapping inexpensive goods, then shipping them probably isn't that risky; otherwise, trade in person so you can inspect everything. Meet up in a public spot, and bring someone with you for safety reasons.

Laura T. Coffey can be reached at laura@ tentips.org.

Sources: Reader's Digest; Consumer Reports Money Adviser