How Saving Money on my Lunch Hour Made me Happy

I've heard shopaholics get a high when they spend money. I get a high when I find good buys. Saving money makes me feel good and I love calculating how much I saved!

Here is why I was so excited about my lunch hour yesterday.

I went to Arby's and used a coupon they had sent to my home. If you get these monthly mailers, take note, there are some good deals. I admit Arby's isn't a healthy lunch but I only go about once a month. Anyhow, I got the new double cheese roast beef sandwich and fries for a total of $1.99 plus tax. Normally their roast beef sandwiches alone are over $3.00. I don't like to eat fries so sometimes I take the deal and throw/or give the fries away. To make things better, the receipt stated I could take a brief online survey for a free sandwich on my next visit. I did this and it took about 3 minutes. So basically for $1.99 I got myself two lunches. I rarely buy a soft drink at a fast food restaurant, due to the mark up. McDonald's is an exception since all of their drinks are $1. I try to drink water, coffee and tea because they are free at work and cheap at home. Not to mention they are all calorie-free.

Next I stopped at Dollar General. Any dollar store is not a good idea if you are an impulse buyer and find yourself purchasing everything in sight, just because it's 'only' a dollar. But if you go to get things you already need, it can be great. I found great deals on household staples I needed like paper towels, paper plates and Dixie cups.

My two impulse buys were peanuts and a t-shirt but I don't even know if they count as impulse buys since both will save me money later. Planters Peanuts at the grocery store are around $4 a can. I got a 3-pack (packaged as a holiday gift) at Dollar General for $7. Who cares about the package since I just saved $5 on 3 cans of peanuts. Next I found a t-shirt I'm going to give to someone for Christmas. It was made of a high quality cotton and had the Frosted Flakes logo on it. I usually see these kinds of vintage shirts for $20-$30 online. This was $6 at Dollar General. I wouldn't normally buy clothes at the dollar store but it was good quality! And I know the receiver will love this shirt. So I've just taken care of one person on my gift list for $6.

If you have self-control, it pays to browse these kinds of stores to find special items for your holiday, cheap everyday household items and sometimes even groceries.