I remember my family sitting around at the dinner table talking about memories. About how we used to have an above ground pool and how I would ride my bike around the backyard in Atlanta everyday. This is when my Dad would explain how times back then were similar to the times we are seeing now, economically speaking. They said this is when they turned to bartering.

Bartering is the process of trading goods or services for other goods or services. Specifically, my Dad traded his motorcycle for an above ground pool. And traded the above ground pool for patio. I think thats how they got our swing set when I was a kid too.

They would barter all of the time because it was as good as money and with the economy as it was, most people did not have the extra money but did have the extra goods or talent lying around.

Well recently, I have learned the joy and addiction of bartering. I wanted an iPad, but I did not want to spend the pricy ticket price for one. So I traded an extra pair of rims I had lying around. Unfortunately, no one who wanted the rims wanted to trade an iPad. But I was able to get an iPhone 4 out of the rims. Literally minutes after receiving the iPhone 4, I placed the iPhone 4 on craigslist.org for barter and received more than a few offers for iPads. I took my pick, met at Starbucks and there you go, I have an iPad.

I bartered a few more times after that, and today just did it again. I bartered an old PS3 game for an Apple wireless keyboard. In fact, I am writing this right now from it and it works great. Oddly enough, it is not my first post written from an iPad. I have to say this is a million times easier, except I do miss the auto capitalizing.

If you have not tried bartering yet, you should give it a try. It is actually kind of fun.

Stay tuned and I will add some tips on this topic shortly.