How many us wish we had more money? I find myself falling into this way of thinking from time to time. But do we really need to have lots of money to live a meaningful life?
Earlier this week I was telling a co-worker about the One Red Paperclip website where Kyle MacDonald documented his methods for trading a simple paperclip and 12 trades later he traded for a house. These trades were all conducted without using traditional money to buy and sell things.
I'm not ready to give up on money just yet, but I think there are lessons to learn from those that have made the effort to find creative ways to trade and barter to obtain needed goods and services without using traditional money. There's a nice lady in Germany who has lived without money for several years and a blog about living without money.
With a little creative thinking, I bet we can all come up with ways to barter for things we want without using money to purchase them. How about using our existing knowledge to teach others valuable skills, or trading elbow grease for items?
After hearing that many of the employees in my office enjoy gardening, my wife suggested establishing a "trade table" where those who are interested can bring extra or unwanted vegetables to exchange for other vegetables they want or need. I mentioned this to a couple of the gardeners at work and they both agreed it's a nice idea they are eager to pursue. One said they always have extra tomatoes and another has extra ear corn. We had extra cucumbers last year as well that we would have traded for a few tomatoes.
Another idea...what if the three of us helped each other plant their gardens? With three of us working on it I bet could all add a few extra rows of production next year. I think we could reduce the overall time we spend doing it too. More for less sounds pretty good to me.
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