(Springfield, MO) -- It may be difficult to part with that gold necklace or your old guitar, but local pawn shop owners say they're seeing more customers do just that to make ends meet.

Employees at pawn shops have seen it all -- Everything from people selling off their grandfather's old coins to contractors calling up and asking for used tools.

Anything so there's more money left in the budget for gas, groceries and other necessities.

Exchanging tools for cash -- that's how Marcie Wells is getting by these days.

"I got $70. I'll be getting it back," she says. "It's tools that my husband needs for work."

She's planning on paying back the loan within 30 days but today she just needs some quick cash.

"It's just kind of a short-term solution to financial problems," she says.

Pawns and sales at Loftis Jewelry and Pawnbrokers are up at least 15% the past few months.

"Most everybody, they're pawning and selling things, they either need gas money or money for groceries," co-owner Darrell Loftis says.

And to cut down on gas, potential buyers of secondhand items are picking up the phone instead of firing up the engine.

"Our phone traffic has increased probably 10 times what it was a year ago and most of it is people calling, looking for particular items, wanting to know if we have them," Loftis says.

And across town one specialty pawn shop owner is seeing people open up their safe and selling high-dollar items like Rolex watches to get by.

"Some of my clientele live paycheck to paycheck, but they're living in $250,000 homes," Craig Warren of Gold Exchange says. "A guy may need $3,000 to get him through for a week or two, so he'll pawn his Rolex."

And many of those clients are pawning their possessions for the first time.

"They don't even understand how a pawn works so we teach them," Warren says. "Once you understand how a pawn works, you're more apt to do it."

Here's the deal: you bring in an item to pawn and walk away with cash. You have to return within 30 days to reclaim that item for the same price, plus you pay interest as well.

This isn't the first time Wells has pawned her stuff, and she says probably not the last.

"You have to give up things that you want," Wells says. "You have to borrow money from people that you don't want to borrow it from to make up for the price of gas."

Both store owners say they're being more flexible these days with interest rates on pawned items. Pawn shops normally have 240% interest on an annual loan, but owners are cutting back those rates for even their newer customers.

Customers have even found ways to save money when it comes to paying back those loans. Loftis says he used to hardly ever have customers make payments over the phone. Now, his store is taking two or three phone payments a day, all so customers can save themselves the drive to the store.