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With inflation high and some individuals feeling the pinch, many families must come up with ways to save money on their daily, weekly, and monthly expenses. An adult can always ask for a raise at work or look for a higher-paying job, but there’s no guarantee that either one will happen. In the meantime, it’s helpful to get creative.

Let’s explore some ways you can potentially save some money if you’re having a tough time paying rent and coming up with the cash for utilities and groceries. These options might appeal if you have never tried them before. 

Getting a Costco or Sam’s Club Membership

It’s likely you’ve seen Costco or Sam’s Club trucks on the highway at some point. You should respect these behemoths, since they sometimes cause crashes. 2019 saw 172 jackknife accident deaths that 18-wheelers caused, so it’s best you keep your distance when sharing the road with one.

These trucks serve a valuable purpose, though. They’re supplying their respective stores with loads of food, clothing, and other merchandise. These two stores often price it cheaper than what you would pay at a local grocery store, so you might consider getting a basic Sam’s Club or Costco membership, depending on which one you have close to you.

Basic Sam’s Club and Costco memberships do not cost very much. If you can afford to pay for a yearly membership, you should find that if you shop there a couple of times per month and you’re selective about what you buy, you should be able to save money on bulk items. If you have a large family with some growing kids, it’s even more worth it.

 Growing children have huge appetites, especially if you have some budding sports stars on your hands. Think about items you can get at Costco or Sam’s Club that you can purchase in large quantities. Dry goods like rice, cereal, and pasta make the most sense. However, you can also sometimes save money buying snack foods or produce in bulk. 

Buying Store Brand Products

If you do not feel like you can afford a Costo or Sam’s Club membership, you might buy the store’s brand of items when you go shopping at the local grocery store. If you’re paying $6 for a box of Kellogg’s Raisin Bran but you can get the store’s brand for $2 cheaper, why not do it?

The store’s brand of food might taste slightly different, but usually, it is negligible. If you’re lucky, your kids won’t even notice the difference. You can also keep an eye open for coupons that come in the mail.  

Shopping at Goodwill on Dollar Days

If you have some Goodwill outlets near you, you’ll often find you can save an incredible amount of money if you shop there, particularly on Dollar Days. Many Goodwill locations have a particular day each week where they discount some items much further than the usual rate. Often, they’ll have a dollar day where every item that’s marked with a particular color of tag can be yours for just one dollar.

You can sometimes find gently used winter coats for a dollar, or pairs of pants, or just about anything else you could want. If you go and attempt to shop for the whole family, you may come home with a new wardrobe for everyone for just a few dollars.

There are a couple of drawbacks you must keep in mind with this method. If you go there looking for a particular item, you might luck out and find it in the right size for one dollar, but you may not. It’s always a crapshoot when you go, which is why you should make a habit of hitting Goodwill every week on Dollar Days. If you can’t find what you want one particular week, you may locate it the following week.

In the meantime, you can also go to stores like Walmart or Target that already have low prices. You can’t get things like underwear at Goodwill anyway, so you can get those from these other stores.  

Waiting Till You’ve Exhausted All Options Before Going Grocery Shopping

You might go grocery shopping while you still have some food in the house. While that makes sense to some degree, if you’re trying to conserve what money you have till the next payday rolls around, you might wait until you exhaust all of the odds and ends in the fridge and pantry before going to the grocery store.

This way, nothing you have is ever likely to get past the expiration or “best by” date. You can sometimes come up with unlikely meals with the few remaining cans you have in the pantry or frozen items you have in the fridge. You may have some unconventional dinners for a few days, but you’re stretching your food budget. That is frequently a good idea if you’re seeing a depleted bank account when you check your balance.  

Turning in Cans and Bottles for Money

You can also consider collecting all the cans and bottles in your house and turning them in at the nearest recycling center. You will only get five cents for each one, but if you have enough of them, you can probably come away with a few dollars. That’s usually all it takes to purchase some peanut butter, jelly, and a loaf of bread or something similar that will last for a few meals. 

You can also go around the neighborhood and collect cans if you’re completely out of cash. In addition, you can take any jars of change you have sitting around the house and turn them into paper money to spend on food or other essentials. 

You can ask a bank to convert the coins to paper money or you can use a machine like you’ll see in most grocery stores. However, keep in mind that these machines charge a commission, so using a bank probably makes more sense.