With the economy on the skids, many of us are bracing for a tougher year and becoming more judicious in our spending habits. We want to hang on to our cash while continuing to obtain much needed goods and services. Arranging local exchanges on Swapsity is an excellent way to beat this unfriendly economy. For example, you can get a haircut in exchange for carpentry lessons. If you are job hunting, resume help is available in exchange for gift cards or Xbox games.

Each of us has different talents, skills and knowledge to share with the rest of the community. You may be good at home repairs, baking cakes, speaking a foreign language, tutoring, offering real estate advice, working with computers or creating designs. Why not trade your talents in exchange for something you need? Even your time can be bartered. If you have some spare time on your hands, you can post a listing offering to help out with dog walking, babysitting, grocery delivery, administrative help, or other errands. You may also have a car to offer another member a ride to work or a snow blower to remove snow from their driveway. Rather than spending your hard-earned money, barter your skills, resources or time for things you need.

When you post your skills on Swapsity, you will need to specify how much an hour of your time is worth. As shown in the example below, you can value your piano teaching skills at $50/hour for advanced students and barter it for 2 hours of private yoga lessons for beginners worth $25/hour.

Barter offer to trade 1 hour of piano lessons valued at $50/hour for 2 hours of yoga lessons valued at $25/hour.

Having an hourly dollar value assigned to your skill and the flexibility to set the number of hours offered, assists in negotiating a fair trade. If both parties are happy with the arrangement, the swappers can agree to trade weekly piano lessons for bi-weekly yoga training. When the total value of skills or items traded is not even, you also have an option of balancing your swap offer with cash.

We invite you to explore your untapped talents, leverage on each other's strengths, and use your skills as a currency. It is a creative way to make the most of your talents and weather the current economic climate.