You can still enjoy the finer things in life – as long as you're willing to barter, writes Caroline Madden
WITH CASH becoming increasingly tight, the ancient art of bartering is enjoying a resurgence. Even if you’re tightening the belt, you can continue to enjoy the finer things in life – just as long as you’re willing to embrace this new cashless culture.
Here are five tips for living well on next to nothing:
1.Discount dining
Feeling guilty about splashing cash on eating out? Fortunately there’s no need to resign yourself to an eternity of home-cooked meals enlivened only by the odd takeaway on special occasions. There are numerous ways to slash the cost of frequenting restaurants.
If you fancy yourself as the next AA Gill or Tom Doorley, sign up for the menu points scheme on www.menupages.ie, and you could soon be dining out for free. Upon joining the scheme and completing a short survey, you will automatically be credited with 450 menu points, and you earn more points every time you review or book a restaurant on the site.
Menu points can be exchanged for vouchers in participating restaurants.
For example, at the moment, members can receive a €25 voucher for Luigi Malone’s restaurant in Temple Bar in exchange for 3,000 menu points.
Pigsback.com offers a similar “PiggyPoints” system to its members. The points can be exchanged for a wide range of rewards including restaurant vouchers.
It is also worth keeping an eye out for dining promotions and special offers on www.findarestaurant.ie and, if you’re interested in cut-price pub grub, check out www.dublinpub.ie/freestuff for vouchers and concessions.
2.Frugal fashion
Forget about getting ripped off in designer boutiques and blowing a month’s wages on the latest bag – swapping is now the new shopping. The beauty of clothes swapping, also known as “swishing”, is that it allows you to get a whole new wardrobe for nothing, while offering a guilt-free way of getting rid of those regrettable impulse buys.
Not sure how to get started? Then drop in to Shebeen Chic restaurant on Dublin’s George’s Street on Saturdays and take part in its weekly “Swap Idol” event.
The premise is simple – you get a token for each item you bring, and you then use these tokens to “purchase” other items.
Once you’ve got to grips with the swapping concept, why not throw your own swishing party? To make sure it doesn’t turn into a frenzied free-for-all, check out the rules on www.swishing.org
If you value a social tipple more than sartorial style, Chambers bar in Cork may be more to your taste. During the day it runs a “switch stitch” swap shop, issuing credits in return for clothes. Customers can either spend their credits on clothes or on drink in the bar at night.
Of course, there’s little point in cutting back on your clothing budget only to blow it all in top-end hair salons. Consider how much you would save if you eschewed your extortionate stylist in favour of a free wash, cut and blow-dry offered by salons in need of hair models for their students to practice on.
If you’re not brave enough to let a scissors-wielding trainee near your locks, at least keep an eye out for budget beauty treatments.
As part of its “love at Dundrum” promotion, Dundrum Town Centre will be offering 1,000 free beauty treatments over the Valentine’s weekend, including makeovers, manicures and massages. More information is available at www.dundrum.ie/love
3.House swap
If your budget won’t stretch to an exotic holiday but you just can’t bear the thought of a “stay-cation”, don’t despair. There are plenty of clever ways to cut the costs of holidaying abroad.
You can save a fortune on accommodation, for example, by taking part in a house swap. Check out www.homelink.ie for listings of prospective house swappers interested in coming to Ireland.
Not quite comfortable with the idea of someone living in your home while you’re not there? Consider couch surfing – www.couchsurfing.com
The couch surfing movement enables people to find free accommodation – not necessarily a couch – around the world with other like-minded members.
Some Irish homeowners are taking the house-swap concept to a new level, and are offering to swap their homes so that they can live – as opposed to holiday – in their desired location.
Presumably this trend is being driven by the stagnation in the property market. On the website www.gumtree.ie, one advertiser is hoping to swap their three-bedroom home in Enniskerry for an apartment in Dundrum to be closer to the Luas line. Before pursuing this kind of extreme house-swap strategy, homeowners should get advice on the legal and tax implications of such an arrangement.
4. Crunch-proof culture
Culture vultures will be relieved to know that, just because there’s a recession, it doesn’t mean they can’t continue to feed their souls with art, music, literature – they just have to do their research.
Entrance is free to the Chester Beatty art museum and library, which has a number of family-friendly events lined up for the weeks ahead.
For example, tomorrow the library will offer free family backpacks with hands-on activities for exploring the library’s collections.
At the moment you can sign up online to become a member of Trinity College’s Science Gallery free of charge.
As a member, you’ll get reduced ticket prices, free Wi-Fi in the gallery and invites to member-only events.
If you’re a bit of a bookworm, it’s time to learn to love your local library again, even if you haven’t visited it since your childhood. Not only do they offer an endless supply of books, but libraries often run free lectures, exhibitions and other cultural events.
5. Bring back bartering
On his One Red Paperclip blog – http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com – Kyle MacDonald described how he bartered his way from a paperclip to a house. Admittedly the chances of replicating his success are slim, but you can still save huge amounts of money by bartering.
As the newly-established Dublin Barter Club ( advertising for members on www.donedeal.ie) put it: “In these credit crunching times, doesn’t it make sense to swap skills instead of paying for them?”
A registration fee of €50 is being charged, but you don’t have to join a club to exchange skills. Simply check out websites like www.gumtree.ie, and you’ll find plenty of people who are willing to swap skills.
If you’ve decided to pursue the recession-friendly concept of self-sufficiency and are growing your own produce, then find (or set up) a network of food producers in your area, so that you can barter and exchange your excess produce.
