anyone ever traded a cake for a service?

I have to admit and I know I will be blasted for this but yes I have traded services . I needed a cold pastry display and I had ran out of funds in my budget for such things. So I traded for one and I could not be happier about it.I of course do not make it a habit or I would be out of business but I have done it the once and I am a contract paperwork person so I made sure it was on paper what transpired .

In order for it to work you need to be very specific about what services you will be trading and the value of each of the services.  Get it in writing and have both parties sign it.  Otherwise you can end up with someone feeling like they got the short end of the stick.
 

 

All the time! (...but only with friends - not strangers). To be fair Northern Ireland is a bit stuck in the past and there's a lot of 'favour owing' about so maybe that's why the behaviour persists....

 

but on a purely economics front it's win-win: providing a service (making a cake) is a cost (time, ingredients, gas, electric...), normally you accept mney to compensate you for that cost, this money is then taxed and the remainder you spend on hiring a builder.....

However if you receive another service in return (builder), that service will 'cost' the builder less than you could hire them for. So long as the time you spent making the cake is worth less to you than the money it would cost you to hire a builder you both win.

 

Contractually it would be a nightmare as 'freeloader theory' expects your builder never to 'pay up' or to do a terrible job since they're losing out on 'real' money (which is why I only trade with trusted friends - plus it stops the beggers asking for discount! )

 

'''''''''''''bbbrrring'''''''''''''''''' ooh that's the scool bell - lesson over - except you vgcea - its detention for you for pulling faces.........

 

Didn't mean to lecture lol - hope it helps you understand the pros and cons tho!!

I trade cupcakes for salsa all the time. My friend makes the absolute best salsa and they love my cupcakes. So there you go...

 

I read that people who use bartering websites can really benefit. A printer in Pittsburgh earned enough credits to send his kid to a really good college.

 

I'd do it, in a minute!

 

jen

I can't ever find any local bartering websites! When we built our bakery, it was bare studs with no insulation or drywall, and I was poking around Facebook and saw a friend of mine worked for a dry wall company that was named "her last name drywall" so I put the offer out there, and they accepted. It did take a frigging month for them to do it all, when it was a 4 day job, but they got 5 $100 cakes out if it.

We bought the drywall but they used their own tools and mud, and did a BEAUTIFUL job!

This. You will also need documentation of the value of the services you receive for tax purposes, since you will owe income tax on the fair market value of the bartered service just as if you were paid with cash.

Note that fair market value is higher than the cost to the person providing the bartered service, so be sure you are both bartering based on FMV and not cost.

craigslist does have a bartering page.

Yeah, but it is still Craigslist ;-P

cupcakes pay for my monthly hair salon visits :)

I just started trading my cake for babysitting from one of my girlfriends!  She's a social butterfly so is always needing this or that dessert to bring to functions.  A few times ago she's like, hey, how about some babysitting for a cake?  I'm like, fistpump awesomesauce!  We agreed that each $10 in cake = 1 hour of babysitting.  Win=win.

 

I would totally do that.

I traded cakes for photography at a party I hosted last summer. I ended up getting the cake picture of my little career so far .  I'd definitely do more bartering if I could!

Years ago I traded a Christening Cake for babysitting with my regular babysitter.  We agreed on the price for the cake and took it from there.