How To Make Every Dollar Count In The Era Of Inflation

Everything is costing a small fortune these days. 

Filling up the tank went from something that was an inconvenience to a small fortune in a few short months, the cost of food at restaurants and grocery stores is through the roof, and just getting by is now a full-time job in itself. 

With inflation at a 40-year high and unprecedented interest rate hikes to combat that rate of inflation, trying to stretch your dollars is tougher than it’s been in a long while. 

So what can a person do to make their dollar stretch further and further? 

Whether trying to set up a retirement, get out of debt, or simply make ends meet, setting financial goals is crucial for your personal finances. However, it shouldn’t make you broke trying to be fabulous in your 20s, 30s, or even 40s. 

Ways To Make Your Dollar Go Further

Making your dollar have more purchasing power in the face of the level of inflation takes a unique approach. 

It’s mistaken to believe you could become a millionaire by cutting out a cup of coffee. All you do is cut costs; money doesn’t work to make more money. Instead, it sits in your pocket. You can save some money over the course of a year, but not enough for life-altering money. 

Instead, cutting costs can help you stretch your dollar without sacrificing any quality of life along the way. 

If making more money is a challenge, then cost-cutting or at least shopping for deals is a great strategy to help your budget. 

Loyalty Programs

One sneaky way to stretch your dollar is to sign-up for every loyalty program you can. A loyalty program is one that a business uses to create repeat business, and it works because, as a customer, you get rewards for a certain amount of money spent. 

Saving money at grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, and even credit cards is an excellent possibility if they offer a loyalty program. The benefits are this; you speed money at the establishment and build up exclusive offers or “cash” to use in the future. 

In effect, you’re getting additional future discounts for being a repeat customer, saving you money over time. 

Discount Codes

Discount codes are promotional codes that vendors and websites offer as an incentive for making a purchase. Some discount codes can be an available discount that you enter at checkout. Other discount codes can be more specific. 

For example, if you’re shopping for cologne or perfume, you may get a FragranceX code for specific fragrances. Another example is if you’re shoe shopping on its website, Nike may have a particular code that discounts your purchase by 10% or so. 

Typically discount codes are rewards for some other activity, from previous purchases to signing up for mailing lists or another incentive-driven offer. 

Clip Coupons

Coupon clipping is more of an old-school type of discount code. Before the internet existed, people would sit around at home and clip coupons from newspapers, magazines, and mailers to save money. 

Here’s the thing; coupons are still available, it just may take a little time to find where they’re published, but they’re definitely out there. 

There are coupons for services, grocery items, restaurant deals, consumer electronics, gas, oil change, and professional services. In fact, if you can name it, there’s probably a coupon for it. 

Buy Sale Items

Shopping when there are slow-season discounts, such as a week after Memorial Day, Labor Day, or after the holidays, can provide you with steep discounts on items that may be out of your reach financially. 

One thing to be aware of, though. Often, sales before a holiday aren’t that good of a deal. This is because retailers will bump prices up a month or two beforehand so that when they “slash” prices by 20%, the item or device is often still more than regular prices.

Outlet Shops

Outlet shops are discounted and discontinued items from brand-name stores. Often you can find top-of-the-line items that, for a variety of reasons, didn’t sell at the prime stores, and you can get those items at a steep discount. Nike, Sunglass Hut, Le Creuset, Nordstroms, Adidas, Ralph Lauren, and many other big named retailers operated outlet shops.