Smoked salmon soap to the lawn work, barter can help you get what you need without using money.
Photographs of Getty, Alannah Hurley and Cyndi Benitez / Collage by NPR
hide
tilting legend
Photographs of Getty, Alannah Hurley and Cyndi Benitez / Collage by NPR
For many of us, when we see something we want, we remove our cards and slip.
But for Cyndi Benitez, director of Okanogan family family In the state of Washington, his soap done by hand is his currency. She exchanges it for things like tea, honey, earrings and scarves.
She even racks with a family of local hunters. “Around October, when they have finished hunting, they will take my hand and tell me:” We have deer fat. “I’m going to return it to do soap and exchange them with soap,” she said.
Barter can be an ingenious way to get what you need without using money, while creating a community, for example experienced traders like Benitez.
“This allows us to return to these roots as human beings who care about each other, who believe in reciprocity, solidarity and balance,” explains Jessica Gordon-NembhardProfessor of community justice and social economic development at John Jay College, University of the City of New York.
If you are interested in trying it, the Barters share real advice on how to get a good deal – and how to raise the possibility of negotiating with others.
Come something to exchange
Think of things in your shooting that you are ready to exchange that others could really want or need, says Benitez. This includes:
👖 homemade and creative hobbies. If you are in the seam, maybe you are working or repairing someone’s pants. If you are an artist, maybe you proceed to watercolor portraits.
🥒 Food. It’s always a popular choice, say our experts. Exchange excess carrots from your garden or eggs from your chickens.
📱 Skills you use to earn a living. Theo Mendez, who worked in the commercial side of the music industry, teaches his friend to market himself as a musician in exchange for song writing. “It’s been two years and we appreciate the help of the other,” he said. (Keep in mind: if you swap more than $ 600 of your commercial services during a year, You will have to declare that on your taxes, according to the Internal Revenue Service.)
Everything is fair as long as there is a market for this. The organizers of the Okanogan Barter Faire family, which facilitates the exchange of an estimated value of $ 250,000 in goods and services each year, say that their participants exchange everything, from furs to jewelry, including massage, including large ticket items such as cars.
Find people who are ready to chat with you
Alannah Hurley and her daughter Dellana Mann Fish for Smelt, a seasonal fish eaten, shared and swapped by the Alaska natives.
Terry Mann
hide
tilting legend
Terry Mann
Barter is not a solo company and you will need to find people who are ready to commit, say the traders who we talked about for this story.
But you don’t have to look far. Think of neighbors, friends, colleagues and groups in which you are already one of the religious or community organizations. Then hold your hand.
Alannah Hurley, who is Yup’ik and who grew up with a rich tradition of barter in the indigenous communities of Alaska, suggests a simple line: “Would you ever be open to negotiations?”
According to his experience, people are more open to barters than you think. The idea “disturbs people’s ears, like” Ooh, intriguing “” and they start to think about what they can exchange, explains Hurley, who exchanged foods like salmon, caribou and herring eggs.
Do not be afraid to transform a purchase in exchange. If anyone in your community sells something you want, Hurley says you could say something like: “We could do this in cash, or I have a more exciting idea: what about bartering it?”
Of course, their answer could be no. But Hurley says that the goal is to open the door to the possibility of swapping.
Create a fair trade
Let’s say that you are a massage therapist and that your neighbor is a carpenter, and you have agreed to exchange services. How do you get a fair trade?
Have a conversation about the arrangement – and don’t be afraid to ask the other person what they think, says Hurley. How many massages would feel equal to the workforce involved, for example, by redoing your porch?
You want the two parties to know the work that enters a barter, says Hurley. Sometimes there is a lot of attention and work that happens behind the scenes. “Whatever the business, you want it to be respectful and reciprocal of time, efforts and energy.”
Continue and you might be surprised by the result.
Jan Nelson has been the Wisconsin neighbors for 40 years. She says that the key to a long-term arrangement is to “turn this favor, but only one. Give them something that may be a little more personal”.
Nelson returned from favors by giving him hand -made neighbors and hats. “You do not start by saying:” Oh, you seem to need help “you start by asking for help, then turning it in nature, more one,” she said.
This episode was produced by Clare Marie Schneider. Digital history has been published by Malaka Gharib. The visual editor is Beck Harlan. We would be delighted to hear you. Leave us a voice message at 202-216-9823, or send us an email to Lifekit@npr.org.
Listen to the life kit on Apple podcasts And Spotifyand register for our bulletin. Follow us on Instagram: @NPrlifekit.
Entertainment
