Last week I was paying our phone/internet/cable bill and I thought to myself. $250 bucks seems like a lot of money for all this! We have AT&T U-verse. We have basically every channel you could want, a DVR, and 3 other receivers in the house. I jumped on line and saw all these specials for new customers and thought “what are they doing for me – a customer whose been with them since 2009?!” So I called them up. I said, “I don’t want to change anything that I have, but I just want to pay less money for it. A few minutes of conversation and the guys said “I can sign you up for a “promotional” 12 month plan, everything stays the same except you will now pay $195 and I upgraded your internet speed.” Done! So my advice for you today – call your phone/cable company and just ask to spend less – you never know! That’s a $660 dollar yearly savings!
A couple weeks ago I bought these mini flat breads, not really with any idea of how I was going to use them. Duh. Breakfast pizza! Each one of these flatbreads is 140 calories. I scrambled egg whites, then topped my flatbread with deli ham, the scrambled egg whites, baby spinach and cheddar cheese, then put it in the toaster oven.
I had every intention of doing T-25 at lunch. Even though I had to work a double, I didn’t think working a Monday night would be anything like working a Friday or Saturday. I tested my blood sugar and it was 144. Not as high as I would have liked it, so I drank an orange juice and headed to the gym. As soon as I pulled into the parking lot, I realized I forgot the office laptop! Oh well, I ended up doing the bike – keeping the RPMs above 100 on the random hill climb and did just under 8 miles.
I had leftover chicken noodle soup for lunch, and thought I should have brought a sandwich or salad to go with it. I remembered that my gym just opened a new café, so I decided to get a salad on the side. I got the grilled chicken chopped salad with chick peas, cucumbers, a little bit of bacon bits and an amazeball dressing – kind of a cross between a balsamic and ranch? This was a super filling lunch. What’s cool too is that since I pay my gym membership monthly, anything I buy just goes to my house account and I pay it at the end of the month. I can grab a water bottle or a balance bar on my way out and they just put it on my tab – nice!
I had no idea what to expect when I got to work. I’ve worked at some restaurants where Monday can be a busy night. There were three servers on last night and when I looked at the reservation book, there was just one reservation at 7:00 for 7 people. I got to work on my side work. You know, the glamorous part where I get to roll 100 rolls of silverware!
We don’t really get stations at all, but just rotate the tables. I was finally up at 5:45 for a 2 top. It’s Northwest Chicago restaurant week through March 2. Over 30 restaurants in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago are participating. At our restaurant, for $35 you get your choice:
- Choice of Italian Beef Eggrolls or Umbriago (which is our classic Caesar salad)
- Choice of Zuppa de Peche or Tenderloin Tornados
- Choice of Cannoli Cake or Chef’s Choice Gelato
I think that’s an awesome deal. The woman did the pre-fix menu and got the zuppa de peche, which she ate every bite of. It’s chock full of scallops, lobster, mussels and shrimp over linguine with a light tomato broth.
That’s a picture of the zuppa de peche on the left there. Jacky, every time I see our imported meat and cheese board which is on the right, I think of you!
Well while my table was eating, it became quickly apparent that 3 servers were too many for a night like that, and since the other two servers work full time there, I decided to bow out and let them work the room and hopefully they made some money. I ended up ordering a pizza to bring home – I get a 50% discount on food. So after paying for my pizza, I walked with $5 and was home by 8:00! Nice!
And thanks to Tony, I can swim at lunch today! He went out and bought me new goggles. I don’t know what it is, but the only brand of goggles that work for me are Speedo brand. I wonder if they will make me swim any faster – ha!
I have breakfast tacos on the brain this morning. I am off to get some cooking done before I have to head to work. Let me know if you save any money on your cable/phone/internet bill! Make it a great day!
GAH. Our cable company SUCKS, because the only “promotional” pricing they could give me would lower my bill by $5, BUT I had to go out and buy a modem instead of using theirs. What a joke!
We can’t get ATT Uverse where we are (too far in the country), so DH convinced me to cut the cord. So no more cable. It’s been about 6 months, and so far the only thing we really miss is watching our local sports teams. We do have/watch Netflix though.
I used to waitress every Monday night and I worked with the greediest woman. We didn’t divide the dining room on Monday’s because it was typically slower than other nights. She would literally push me out of the way to get to a table first. I absolutely hated working with her. Every now and then karma would bite her in the behind and I would end up with some great parties.
I am totally calling Comcast today. I cringe every time I see my bill especially since I don’t even watch TV.
I must have gotten the we have some many customers we don’t care if you leave representative. I called AT & T to ask to make some changes to lower my bill. They not only didn’t want to lower it but I had to cut back on services if I wanted to save. To top it off they placed the order wrong and doubled my previous bill. I have had to call back twice now because it still isn’t correct. Crossing my fingers this month it will be fixed. (Sorry I went on a rant 🙁 )
Most restaurants are closed here on Monday and if they are open it’s usually not busy. I don’t like going out for dinner on a Monday because of that. I like it when there are some people in a restaurant.
We have a restaurant week here too but with the arrival of Groupon it’s often much cheaper to buy a groupon where you usually get 2 for the price of 1 instead of booking during restaurant week.
Great idea to call about the bill, it’s not different here. All promotions for new customers. R. thought we were paying too much too (our internet and TV are 2 different companies) and that it would be cheaper to switch to one of them for all services. I looked it up but when I look beyond the promotions it turned out we would save 5 USD on the bill so I’m not switching cause it works perfect this way.
I did the same when I went on maternity leave and they agreed to give me a free month of internet, and we lowered our phone bill with a value plan (still with ATT) by $80 a month!
Don’t even get me started on the cable bills. We do what you do, but the service is horrible. And there is hardly any competition now. They really get my goat. Restaurant week can be a lot of fun and your special looked great. I’m surprised you weren’t full. But if that picture of the table was floated around, you might be. What a super photo!
Sorry I’ve been MIA lately! I got a new computer with Windows 8 and the boss upgraded our business software program and it has not been a pleasant experience for me. Old dog plus new tricks equals disaster!! lol I can barely work my cell phone!
All the food pics looks so good!!!
Nah, I don’t have to worry about my cable/internet/TV bill. I just sleep with the cable guy & he takes care of it. LOL But I’m married to him so it’s ok. 😀
Did you see my status last week about Uverse? Our bill kept going up and up, I noticed they raised the HD receiver fee too. I called them and said I was so close to going with someone else. They transferred me to the “retention” department and wham bam, they found some new promotion and the bill went down by 60.00 a month. Its only for a year, so I will have to call in a year when it jumps back up again. They also lowered our cell phone bill too.
You are right, it never hurts to ask! Glad they lowered your bill 🙂 And that breakfast pizza looks amazing!
I have at&t also with internet/tv/phone and pay a low rate of $105….so I am happy with that….if it does start to climb, I most certainly will call to get the lowest rate possible. Glad you got your bill cut down….good job. Wonder if that would work with credit cards????
Food looks good at Zeals, glad you got the night off and a delish pizza to go. Your breakfast pizza looks pretty good too. Have a great day.
Ask and you shall receive, wow! I think I’m too chicken, but I wonder if my hubby will try it when I tell him how well it worked for you.
I need new swimming goggles. I can never find ones that work for me though!
We do this with our direct tv every year to save money, there is so much service competition, its an easy process… Has saved us hundreds every year.
I swam this morning too! I managed to swim 1100 yds in 34 minutes, which is 1 minute faster than I was swimming 1000 yds last year. Woo hoo!!
I use Aquagoggles. They are prescription.
I wouldn’t think Mondays would be very busy at any restaurant, deals or not. Pretty much all I want to do after work on Monday is put on some sweats or pajamas and relax. Now Thursday? By then I’m jonesing for the weekend and can be talked into dinner out lol!
Glad you didn’t have to stick around with it being so slow! Nice that you at least covered your pizza and walked with $5!
Glad you are going to be able to swim again!!
Over the summer I called Comcast to cut back on our channels so that we could lower our bill. In the end I got all the premium channels and a lower monthly bill. 🙂 That fish dish looks delish (love the picture of the table). And of course the meat board too, my favorite meal.
Mornin!
Love restaurant week!
I also love when restaurants are slower on Monday that they do half-priced bottles of wine to get people in the door. 😉 It works for me!
My husband did the same and we not only pay less now, but they added HBO. This is great because we love Newsroom, which won’t be back until this fall, but we’ve also been really in to True Detective lately!