Marie Gale, of Clyde, wants to sell organic produce from her garden, but not for money.
She is on a mission to revive a local bartering system known as green dollars where people can swap things they have or can do for things they need.
For example, Ms Gale said she sometimes wanted lawn clippings for her organic vegetable garden and, in return, she could provide organic produce and free-range eggs.
While a green dollar system was not a new thing, there had been forms of it operating in this country since the mid-1980s, Ms Gale said.
The last formal one in Central Otago folded about 10 years ago.
"I think there is a general climate of economic difficulty and I'm certain there's no fat in my budget ... if you want to do extra things, there's just no budget for it."
She said hiring a babysitter, for example, might seem like a luxury to some people but this system would offer a way for people to pay that babysitter in green dollars which could then be spent on something the babysitter wanted, such as produce, craft items, advice, tuition.
The idea would be to have a website that people could log into each time a green dollar transaction was made, and money from their account, earned by trading goods or services, would be transferred to the other person's account.
"This way it doesn't really matter if the person doesn't have what you want."
There would be a charge for setting up the website, and any maintenance needed on it, which would be covered by a small fee from those using the system, Ms Gale said.
