JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Has your grocery bill gone up? Do you hesitate to buy a new piece of clothing or maybe even a service you need? What if you could get your needs met without using cash? Life Kit has a few tips about bartering - that is, exchanging things that both parties want. Kyle Norris reports.
KYLE NORRIS, BYLINE: The first step, if you want to try bartering, is to do a little inventory and think about what you could offer that other people might want. Cyndi Benitez runs a giant barter fair in Washington state. It's called the Okanogan Family Barter Faire. Benitez says, think about your creative skills or hobbies as potential things you could barter. For example, she makes homemade soap. During the fall, Benitez trades her soap with a family of hunters.
CYNDI BENITEZ: You know, around October, when they're done hunting, they'll get a hold of me, and they'll say, we have deer fat, and we have some meat for you. And I'll trade them for the deer fat and render it and then make soap, and then I trade them back part of the soap.
NORRIS: When she's at the fair, Benitez trades her soap for things like tea, honey, earrings and scarves. And that's another thing to keep in mind. Consider the things you'd like to receive in a barter, too. Benitez says one popular thing to barter is food, whether that's surplus vegetables from your garden or a homemade meal or baked goods. Your professional skills could also be something you can offer, like if you're an accountant - you can help someone with their budget, and they could help you with some yard work. Oh, and keep in mind, if you do barter more than $600 in a year of your business service, you need to declare that on your taxes. That's according to the Internal Revenue Service.
And of course, you'll need to find other people down to trade. The good news is you usually don't have to look too far. Think neighbors, friends, coworkers and groups you're already a part of. Alannah Hurley was born and raised in southwest Alaska. She grew up with her grandma, who bartered smoked salmon with maintenance workers who worked on her grandmother's property. Hurley is Yup'ik and works for a tribal consortium. She travels for work and meets other Alaska natives, and they often barter for traditional foods, including caribou, clams and crabs. Hurley has a suggestion of how to dip your toe in the bartering waters. When you're about to make a transaction, try saying this - we could pay for this in cash...
ALANNAH HURLEY: Or I have maybe a more exciting or intriguing idea - what about trading or bartering for something? And I feel like that pricks people's ears. Like, ooh (laughter), intriguing. What could we trade?
NORRIS: People might say no, but the goal is to open the door to the possibility of bartering. And finally, some loose guidelines can help things feel fair. Is this a one-time trade or something more long-term? Hurley says, don't be afraid to ask the other person what they think would be fair.
HURLEY: I think, at the end of the day, whatever the trade looks like, the bartering looks like, you want it to be respectful and reciprocal of time and effort and energy.
NORRIS: You can even write up a simple contract. Bartering can help you meet your needs as an individual, but it can also be a reminder that we all have value. That's according to Jessica Gordon Nembhard. She's an economist and professor at John Jay College, City University of New York.
JESSICA GORDON NEMBHARD: Bartering really allows us to get back to those roots as human beings who care about each other, who believe in reciprocity, solidarity, balance.
NORRIS: She also says her favorite thing about bartering is that it shows we all have gifts we can share, including our skills and our creativity. For NPR News, I'm Kyle Norris.
SUMMERS: For more tips from Life Kit, go to npr.org/lifekit.
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