Long before we humans got smart enough to invent currency, we
got our goods without coin or cash: by swapping and borrowing.
Exchanging with another person is still an effective strategy for
getting what you want with minimum financial fuss, and a number of
Web sites bring the marketplace to your desktop.
Long before we humans got smart enough to invent currency, we got our goods without coin or cash: by swapping and borrowing. Exchanging with another person is still an effective strategy for getting what you want with minimum financial fuss, and a number of Web sites bring the marketplace to your desktop.
TRADE CLOTHES
Remember back in college when you’d rummage through a friend or sister’s closet to find something “new” to wear? And sometimes you’d get to keep it? This is the premise of a clothing swap.
Suzanne Agasi of San Francisco has been hosting parties to trade clothes for more than a decade, but she says the idea is just now catching on nationally. “I haven’t bought a pair of jeans in 14 years,” she says. She offers this method for putting together a clothes-swap party:
- Before you start organizing, choose a charity to receive leftover items. Even though most guests will go home with something snazzy, lots will be left over.
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Choose a time and day, and invite your friends. Have them invite friends. Don’t worry about sizes; the more the merrier.
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Instruct friends to bring good-quality, freshly cleaned clothes. Ask them to bring purses, shoes and accessories they’re ready to get rid of, as well.
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Designate a safe room or area for purses, shoes and the clothes people come in. Otherwise, says Agasi, guests will lose items they never intended to trade.
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When guests arrive, have them sort items. Place shoes and purses together, sweaters together, tops together, dresses together and jeans together.
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Have everyone bring a “shopping” bag. Chosen items should go in the bag. Bags are off-limits for swapping.
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After the party, pack up extra items and transport them to the charity.
EXCHANGE BOOKS
Books, though certainly worthy purchases, can hit the checking account hard and fast. Save money by getting and giving books in an online book swap. Usually you pay to send books to other people, and other people will send books to you. You choose the books you’d like via an online database, and once you get them, they’re yours to keep or swap again. Here are a few book-swap sites.
n Paperbackswap, www.paperbackswap.com
The site also lets you print out a wrapper that’s ready for mailing. You just wrap it around the book, add the necessary postage and drop it in the mail. Borrowing works on a point system: When you send out a book, you get enough points to request one.
- Bookmooch, www.bookmooch.com
This works like Bookins or Titletrader but with two nifty extras. People can trade books in multiple languages and internationally. Members also can donate points to charity partners such as children’s hospitals. Members must send at least one book for every two they order.
SWAP GIFT CARDS
We’ve all gotten them – a gift card to a store or restaurant we’ll probably never set foot in. Instead of just letting the gift card expire, hop online and sell it or trade it for one you’ll use, or give to someone else as a gift.
- Certificateswap, www.certificateswap.com, acts as an online marketplace to sell gift certificates. It groups certificates by type – men’s, women’s, automotive, dining – to make browsing easier.
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Cardavenue, www.cardavenue.com, also allows trades but has an eBay-like component that auctions off gift cards to the highest bidder. Of course, you also can sell gift cards on eBay.
SHARE RIDES
With gas prices approaching $4 this summer, even a car with great gas mileage can feel like a guzzler. Sharing the costs with riding partner or two becomes ever more attractive, and the Fort Worth Transportation Authority will help set a ridesharing program in motion.
Simply call the Transportation Authority (817-336-RIDE), and they’ll match you up. The teaming doesn’t always happen overnight, though. Putting a pair together can take a few months, depending on how many others in your area want to carpool, too.
If you have a long commute, you can save even more cash by joining a vanpool. A vanpool driver plans the most efficient route and then picks up and drops off the riders each morning and evening. Riders don’t have to share driving duties, but they do pay a monthly fee, which starts at $71 a month and increases depending on the distance traveled. The T requires at least seven riders to start a vanpool. For more information, go to www.the-t.com/carpool.html.
Because demand has jumped – ridership is up almost 17 percent from April 2007 to April 2008 – all the vans are in use and you can’t start a new one, but many pools still have open spots. The T estimates that vanpooling can save a commuter who travels 45 miles daily almost $8,000 a year, factoring in savings on upkeep, gas and insurance.
If you join a car- or vanpool, check with your insurance company. Many will cut discounts of up to 15 percent for people who car- or vanpool or use mass transit regularly.
BORROWED SHELTER
Whittle down your summer travel budget by couch surfing or house swapping.
House swapping, common overseas, came to American attention after the release of the 2006 movie “The Holiday”. House swapping is exactly what it sounds like. Figure out where you’d like to go on vacation and find someone there who’s willing to trade pads with you for a specified length of time.
If you’re worried about opening up your home to a perfect stranger, a reasonable concern to be sure, going through an established Web site like www.homeexchange.com, or HomeLink International, www.homelink-usa.com, can ease fears. Both Web sites have lengthy info sections on the safety of the trades and charge a fee to list homes.
The most important rule of house swapping, experts say, is to leave the house exactly the way that you found it.
A second way to snag a bed without paying Motel 6 is couch surfing. When you couch surf, you don’t have to trade your place for theirs. You just stay with them while you’re visiting their city – like being an exchange student.
Stacy Anderson, a 39-year-old self-employed Fort Worth, Texas, resident, has had three surfers stay at her house, which she shares with her boyfriend, and she just finished her first “surfing trip” to Alaska this month.
Before she signed up to surf or host, she attended couch-surfing meetups to get a better feel for the people and the process. (Get in touch with local couch surfers at www.couchsurfing.com, which networks surfers from more than 200 countries.)
“I felt really comfortable about the people I’d met,” she says. So she started letting people stay with her.
Surfers don’t pay hosts, but they generally bring him or her a gift from their home. A German surfer, for example, brought Anderson some chocolate from Germany. When Anderson went to Alaska, she took her host avocados.
FREECYCLE
If you haven’t discovered Freecycle, you’ve been paying too much for stuff. Freecycle is an Internet-based movement that encourages people to give away used items in good condition to someone in their area – rather than throwing them away.
n Here’s how it works: Log on to www.freecycle.org. Click on “Browse groups.” Then choose the group nearest you. Click on the Yahoo group’s link to join. You’ll have to create a short profile and include an e-mail address.
n Each day, you’ll get e-mails about free items or requests for free items. A subject line might say, “OFFER: Girls clothing sizes 6-8” or “WANTED: blue plaid couch.” If someone on the listserv wants the clothes or has the couch, they’ll send a reply e-mail, and the two parties will agree to meet and swap. The person who agrees to take the items bears the responsibility for picking them up in a timely manner. Money does not change hands.
- Freecycle creator Deron Beal says the site keeps more than 400 tons of a waste out of the world’s landfills daily.
