I am currently physically disabled due to an accident, and I am struggling to keep my house clean with my two miniature tornadoes around. I can’t afford to hire a cleaner, but I desperately need one.

I was talking to another mom about how I am canning food to try to have low-calorie snacks for my husband, who is trying to lose weight. She told me how she is canning to supplement her low income, and thus, a beautiful arrangement was born. She would trade me as many hours as I spent helping her learn how to can, and she got to take home some of the products. So we have made pickled carrots, cranberry sauce, and cranberry apple jam so far. We are also going to make blueberry lemon jam from the blueberries we have in the freezer.

I taught her sterilization, the recipes, the techniques, safety rules, and just a few tips and tricks I picked up through the years doing this that Google won’t tell you. I used the carrots I got at the food bank and at a Thanksgiving sale to make my pickled carrots. I will buy fruit close to expiration that I know I will never eat in time, and will prepare it and freeze it. That is how I have the strawberries to go with the little bit of rhubarb that I managed to pick from a friend’s yard (only got a little bit before the deer ate it all). 

I waited until the end of the season when a produce stand was closing for the season and bought a whole 5 gallons of cranberries and 30lbs of beets for 50% off. I made two types of pickled beets. I used the zucchini I got from the food bank and canned it in pineapple juice, so my husband has a sweet treat that is actually vegetables. I will go and pick wild blueberries and freeze them, and then the only thing I need to buy is sugar in order to process them, and I have it for other things as well.

So far, it has been amazing getting to share my love of a productive hobby and have the mopping done and not have to spend any of the money I don’t have. This is especially true in low-income households, when there isn’t any extra money to go around; it can make you feel so helpless. But trading skills and services allow both households to get further ahead, and neither gets further behind.

There are so many hobbies out there that are fading, and so many both young and old are eager to learn. Just because you think that your hobby “isn’t anything special” doesn’t mean others will think like that. Try reaching out to community Facebook pages or bulletin boards at your local community centers to see if there is someone out there who would like to barter to learn your special skill. I personally have saved hundreds of dollars on cleaning services. In my area, it costs a minimum of $20 an hour and up to $40 an hour to have someone come clean, and instead, I have been able to trade for it.  

Everyone has something to offer, and everyone can make someone else’s life a little better. If you don’t feel like that is true of you right now, that’s ok. Connection is the most valuable thing you can barter anyway; it is as simple as keeping someone company for a short while, and you can go about your day knowing you have made a small difference that, for someone else, is a big difference.