Employers everywhere are tightening their belts in response to the current financial crisis. A good deal of employers are already past cutting travel and other expenses and are looking at payroll to keep costs in check. This complicates matters for any employee who is up for a raise right now, myself included. Thankfully CNN has a list of six benefits to barter for if a pay hike is out of the question.

The benefits compiled in partnership with Careerbuilder.com include the following:

• Time off
• Relaxed dress code
• Education opportunities
• Going green bonuses
• Flexible schedules
• Wellness benefits

I found this list to be quite useful since the timing on my negotiation for a raise is what can be referred to as unfortunate to say the least, and I may have to settle for perks rather than cash. While I am a big fan of using perks such as the ability to work from home, flexible schedules and a relaxed dress code to retain employees during good economic times they are a poor substitute for cash when expenses are rising. Have you tried paying your mortgage in casual Fridays? The banks aren't that desperate....yet.

Sadly with the bailout having little positive effect on the stock market it looks like employees looking for compensation will have to make do with perks rather than payment for the time being. Then again if you work for AIG, a recipient of government funding, the perks may be worth it!

I've always been fascinated with how underground economies work due in part to my addiction to reading any story about prison escapes. I can clearly remember the mastermind doling out packs of cigarettes to keep someone quiet or acquire a critical piece of the escape plan. Indeed cigarettes were the de facto currency for prisoners, who cannot possess real currency, until smoking was banned in 2004. Since inmates can no longer barter with cigarettes they've turned to pouches of mackerel to fill the need for a common currency inside prison walls.

Even though bartering isn't officially allowed inside prison walls, prisoners are expected to dole out a few pouches of mackerel when you get your haircut. The use of fish by prisoners to create their own economy is a reminder that virtually anything can be used as currency. Even outside prison walls we don't need to rely on government minted tender to complete transactions so long as there are willing parties involved. For all I know there's a subset of people in my town who would gladly accept Chuck E. Cheese tokens or Antartican Dollars for my daily needs.

Every generation seems to discover barter anew. A few companies are using the internet to work out the kinks of trading one thing for another with no cash. But for 73 years the readers of Yankee Magazine have been able to do the same for free, first on the pages of the New England institution and now on its website.

Jamie Trowbridge, the president of Yankee Magazine wrote in after our previous post on bartering. I talked to him about the "Yankee Swop," which I think must be the oldest barter forum in the country. Trowbridge's grandfather Robb Sagendorph started the swop shortly after he started the magazine. Trowbridge explained that his grandfather was annoyed that the local printer kept a jar of dentures out and kidded him with an ad: "Will swap one pair store teeth for a broom."

Much to everyone's amazement the ad got a response and soon the "swop" column was born. The magazine itself received the letters, then sent them on to the person who placed the ad. The only rule was that you couldn't swap for money -- that would just be buying, not swapping, and fit in the classified ads. "I'm sure that somewhere in a file drawer there's a policy, but we just use editorial judgment on the part of whoever is editing the column," says Trowbridge. "We didn't run stuff that appeared to be really inappropriate."

An editor of mine used to say that he could tell if someone was new to financial journalism because they would eventually suggest a story on barter as the next big thing. Luckily I'm blogging, not journalizing, now so I can mention Swaptree.com, which wants to be the Ebay or Amazon of people sending each other the junk they don't use anymore.

Swaptree is trying to be a true barter site. There are plenty of barter lite sites out there. There's Tradeaway.com, FrugalReader.com, and others that specialize in music. They mainly use some kind of point system (so it's just another version of currency) or charge per listing. Or both. There is the old fashioned Yankee Swop in Yankee Magazine, but it has the desperate quality of those personal ads looking for someone the writer saw on a train in the rain. You just can't believe the specific right person will read the ad and fulfill the wish. Will the guy who owns "Yankees memorabilia picture" really find an owner of a 1974 Buick LaSabre willing to trade? No, probably not. That's why we have currency.

Swaptree does aim to be a little different. You simply list a bunch of stuff you want and a bunch of stuff you want to get rid of. If any matches up--or even matches in a three-way triangle swap--you'll hear about it. But because there's no point system all your stuff is basically worth one point. You can't swap two cruddy paperbacks for one good hardcover; Swaptree can't handle that. You can only do one-for-one swaps. I put some items on there, but I think I'll still end up just stacking my old books in my building lobby to see if my neighbors want them.

Years and years and years ago, way past the statute of limitations, I found myself walking to a Hardee's restaurant with my then girlfriend. We were both...um...impaired. Actually, to be completely honest, it was 1:00 A.M., we were...impaired...out of our minds, and desperate for food. Thinking about the grease-laden Hardee's menu, we'd already decided which items we were going to get. I'd more or less settled on the whole right-hand column, which, for some reason, I was able to remember with photographic clarity.

We were in a hurry, so we'd just put on our pajamas. Actually, I was wearing pajamas and she was wearing my bathrobe and a pair of pajama bottoms. As we neared the eatery, I decided to get ready. I didn't want to be slowed down by the trouble of reaching for my wallet, disentangling my keys, or any other difficulties. We were going to go in, get fed, and get out.

My pockets were empty. So were my girlfriend's. Just to be sure, we double, triple, quadruple-checked everything. No dice: we were out of luck. Sadly, hungrily, we returned home.

Recently, I found myself giggling at a similar story. Apparently, Wade Churchward, a resident of Careton, New Zealand, found himself in the same situation, but decided to pursue an alternate form of payment. Stoned, hungry, and out of cash, he attempted to convince a convenience-store clerk to accept 21 grams of marijuana in exchange for a bag of potato chips and two packs of M&Ms. (ed- According to estimates in the High Times, a gram of pot sells for around $12 in the U.S., or $252 for 21 grams. Very pricey muchies.) Given that the next person in line was a policeman, the clerk turned Mr. Churchward down.

While I am sure that justice was done, I weep for the death of the barter economy!

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. He's tried to barter, but his landlord refuses to accept delicious homemade preserves as payment. Fool.