Where I live, we work on a barter exchange - a lady brings me fresh free-range eggs from her hens and I make her two cakes in return. I haven't paid for a car service in years, the guy over the road from me owns a garage he does mine and hubby's car, in exchange he's had his chimney repointed and roof repaired (courtesy of my brother - whom I help out on the farm) and has real ale we get given to us by my brother in law (he's a brewer at Theakstons) and comes to a couple of our big BBQ's we have every year - the gardening is done by a man in return for me doing his accounts ready for auditing, and we've had decorating done in exchange for concert tickets and CD collections (my husband works for Sony).
Even small things, like dog-walking is done in exchange for picking up children from school or taking somebody shopping - we've been doing it for about 17 years now - and never had a compalint yet!