I appreciate this is 5 years too late – but yes, someone has to make the move. Happened to me twice – i was asked to make a birthdy cake & cupckes for a friend’s 4yo’s birthday, and another to make some Barbie clothes for he daughter’s birthday, which set me off on a trend of hardly ever having to buy birthday presents! (I also built up the courage to swap cakes for a small tax calculations & bits of DIY)

Then I took the lead & asked a good friend if she would buy my daughter a fluffy pig from the local goodwill shop that my daughter craved. Started an avalanche of second-hand presents. Good for us, good for the earth!

“If you help family or friends with small tasks (eg shopping, cleaning, gardening or small repairs), you should not pay tax of it as a starting point.

If the service is beyond what it is common to help with, for example, because it has a significant economic value, you should pay taxes.
If you receive money to help, or exchange services, you must pay tax.
The pocket money for your home-living children is tax-free.”

Happy that the pocket money are tax free haha!

What a terrific friend and neighbor you are to your community. We need more people who trade their skills rather than cash. I have land and buildings that often need general maintenance and have traded hunting privileges for this work. We in the driftless area of MN barter like this in many ways.

I would say where there is cash laid out in terms of parts or equipment, there should be reimbursement in cash. Exchanging hours of babysitting or a ride to a doctor’s office are not so financially strapping on the one providing the service. I look at it as I am giving without expecting payment in return, then I do not feel hurt. I have swapped babysitting with friends and given vegetables from my garden and jars of canned goods to friends. My husband cuts my hair and he has given haircuts to my best friend who has bought us dinner when we went out together, and hubby cuts my mom’s hair who watches my boys when we have a date night. We also pay for her cell phone as she is getting up in years, and I want to be able to reach her when I need to.
For more labor intensive areas like painting a room or tilling a garden, I would put it in writing exactly what we are exchanging, so there are no hurt feelings or lost friendships.

I wholeheartedly agree with you about women undervaluing their skills, and I have the same misgivings about bartering sometimes!

Even to a lesser extent sometimes–my friend is a lawyer and just gets asked for “casual advice” all the time, that often turns into helping file paperwork and balloons into even more, without anything (money or barter) in return.

Suzie – Yes I have this same issue! I’m not shy, but I don’t want to offend anyone accidentally! What does the conversation look like? Can anyone give us some sample language??

Mrs Frugalwoods??

I had the same thing happen with my legal services, several years ago. I went to court on a hotly contested case, that would normally cost thousands in legal fees, and the home repair I bartered for, did not happen. That was the end of my bartering days. There is actually a criminal charge for theft of services here in this state, but I did not pursue that.