Today, many of us are being too lazy to sample things. Instead we tend to go to Kontakt libraries or so for just about the same sounds... My New Year's resolution will be to start sampling sound again.
Also I am into new and exciting sounds. You can read a thread of mine here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=493605 . It has many great suggestions for tools for creating unheard-of sounds.
I would also recommend MMorph from Melda: https://www.meldaproduction.com/MMorph . It's 150 euros, but educational price is 50% off, I think. Right now there's a Christmas sale at Melda, so it's 75 euros at the moment!
Another thing that has helped me was to build my own multi effect. This way, it won't take too long to try out different things, it's just to select one of the effects and see how it affects the sound. Actually it's been much more useful than I anticipated when I built it. It is a MUX patch, built in MuLab (MUX is also sold separately). MUX patches can also hold external VSTs, so you can use my patch as a template and substitute things you don't want with VSTs. It's really cool and powerful! MuLab is 79 euros I think, and MUX standalone about 20 euros less.
So, if I were you, I'd sample everyday things, morph them, and run them through the multieffect. You'd have a powerful and creative setup for about 150 euros. Merry Christmas!