From soap to canned smoked salmon to lawn work, bartering can help you get what you need without using cash.
Photographs by Getty, Alannah Hurley, and Cyndi Benitez/Collage by NPR
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Photographs by Getty, Alannah Hurley, and Cyndi Benitez/Collage by NPR
For many of us, when we see something we want, we pull out our cards and swipe for it.
But for Cyndi Benitez, manager of the Okanogan Family Barter Faire in Washington state, her handmade soap is her currency. She exchanges it for things like tea, honey, earrings and scarves.
She even barters with a family of local hunters. “Around October, when they’re done hunting, they’ll get a hold of me and say, ‘we have deer fat.’ I’ll render it to make soap and trade them back with soap,” she says.
Bartering can be a resourceful way to get what you need without using cash, while also creating community, say experienced traders like Benitez.
“It allows us to get back to those roots as human beings who care about each other, who believe in reciprocity, solidarity and balance,” says Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, a professor of community justice and social economic development at John Jay College, City University of New York.
If you’re interested in trying it out, barterers share real-world tips on how to get a fair deal — and how to bring up the possibility of trading with others.
Come up with something to swap
Think about the things in your wheelhouse you’re willing to trade that others might genuinely desire or need, Benitez says. That includes:
👖 Homemade goods and creative hobbies. If you’re into sewing, maybe you hem or mend someone’s pants. If you’re an artist, maybe you barter watercolor portraits.
🥒 Food. It’s always a popular choice, our experts say. Exchange surplus carrots from your garden or eggs from your chickens.
📱 Skills you use to make a living. Theo Mendez, who has worked in the business side of the music industry, teaches his friend how to market himself as a musician in exchange for songwriting lessons. “It’s been two years and we enjoy each other’s help,” he says. (Keep in mind: If you barter more than $600 of your business services in the course of a year, you will need to declare that on your taxes, according to the Internal Revenue Service.)
Anything is fair game as long as there’s a market for it. Organizers of the Okanogan Family Barter Faire, which facilitates the exchange of an estimated $250,000 worth of goods and services each year, say their participants trade everything from furs to jewelry to massages to big-ticket items like cars.
