Websites and businesses promoting cash-free transactions are booming from New Hampshire to New Zealand, as people find new ways to make ends meet through bartering and swapping just about any product or service. A spokesman for Craigslist.org, a classified advertising service, says that bartering on the site has doubled in the past year.

Ron Whitney, of the International Reciprocal Trade Association, reports that about $12 billion worth of business-to-business bartering is transacted each year around the world and that more than 250,000 U.S. businesses participated last year. Now, individuals are following suit via websites and community networks.