My two awesome accomplishments for today.

People don't understand that being in a house pretty much all day everyday gets to be a bit old after a while, especially if you aren't driving and don't know a whole lot of people in the area. Even if I borrowed the car, I really didn't have a lot of options as far as places to go or people to see so I just sit in the house. The only voices I hear and the only people I talk to till Daylan comes home are from facebook or random tv shows. I finally decided that enough was enough and I wanted to get a job.

Yesterday I went and filled out four applications for restaurants close to the house and we decided to drop them off today. It was 3pm so we were in between the lunch and dinner rushes. The first three places were completely dead, which is what I expected. The last restaurant actually had cars in it. Not only that but half of the restaurant was packed during this "off" time when every other place only had a few tables occupied. It certainly was an interesting thing to see.

I handed my application to a waiter and he asked if I wanted to go ahead and do an interview. I was already there so why not? The manager sat me down and barely looked at my application. He asked me a few questions. He saw that all my other jobs were in Florida, so he asked how I liked it in Texas. I'm use to a beach area with rain so I told him that this was a big change. I did make it clear that while I had ten years of experience in the food industry that only ten months of it was restaurant experience and only three or four months of that was waitressing experience. I told him I wasn't working for a while, but it was because I didn't need to. I told him I was now working so we could pay for a wedding. Fib. He didn't need to know the real reason but he just smiled and nodded. He asked me about the last restaurant so I told him that I probably couldn't handle more than four restaurants, honesty is the best policy, but that I'm use to working a lot. At Sonic I worked 60+ hours so that wasn't a lie. My hours were being cut, business was slow so I left. The restaurant really did shut down, but I guess I made it seem like it shut down shortly after I left. If he tries to call, he won't get anywhere. From what I understand, the building is gutted. He said that my having food experience is good and my lack of restaurant experience is also great. They apparently are revamping rules and whatnot so I can be trained with "good behaviors and habits." He said that I have right people person personality that he is looking for, despite my saying I am shy at first. He said that if I needed extra days for training I could have it. I asked if he wanted me to be a hostess first so I could get a better understanding of the menu and he said it wasn't necessary. He apparently either really wanted me to be a waitress or was in desperate need for a waitress. Either way I was in the right place at the right time. Orientation and paperwork is on Saturday. He told me to expect to be there for about three hours so 9am-noon.

Yeah, I wasn't expecting to be hired on the spot.

By next week I will be a waitress for Cheddars. This is one of the busiest restaurants in San Angelo. He said it is a 3.2 million dollar a year restaurant. Daylan says it is really good and usually packed. How can I not make money if it is busy? I have heard from Daylan's family that a lot of parties and business meetings are held there. I am definitely excited at the idea of making a shit ton of money. I just have to get use to the pace, to the menu, to holding a tray full of food (again) and see if I can advertise myself. I'll be doing all this fun stuff again.

I'm just hoping that I've learned how to better control my temper. I don't tolerate people yelling at me or giving me a hard time because they came in that way. I don't kiss ass. It's good trait in real life but a bad trait to have at work.

After we got done with that, Daylan of course started calling people to share the news. He seemed really proud of me. We went and got our grocery shopping done. Once again I couldn't use a lot of my coupons, but I did explain to Daylan that Albertson's and HEB is great for just groceries, but places like Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid (which we don't have here) are best for toiletries, laundry detergent and other items. If I remember correctly, you can double coupons there. I think it is finally starting to sink into his head a bit. He just hates having to shop in more than one place. Anyway, this is how we did this week.

Here are the stats: what we spent was $76.15 and saved $57.93. That is a 76% savings! Assuming my math is correct,that is the best I've done yet! It's not a lot of stuff for $76 but we had a lot of $.88 or $1.88 deals. The chicken was buy one get two free so we got a little over 6lbs of chicken for $18 or so. Daylan that while he loves red meat, he thinks it would be a good idea to stick with mostly chicken. 

The two boxes of cereal were $1.88 a box, and I got the kiddy sugary cereal for Daylan. I find that stuff disgusting. The six things of yogurt were 2 for $.88, so I couldn't pass it up. The cream cheese was BOGO for the generic brand. I bought a pack of red beans (not realizing that I already had some), sour cream, eggs were half off so they were $.88. The two mustards were 3 for $5. Green onions for 2 for $.88, as were the grapefruit. The cantaloupe was $1.88. The nutella was about $2.50 with my dollar off coupon. That was a treat for me. The milk, tub plug, bagels and sour cream weren't any special deals, but we needed it. The three boxes of velvetta shells were $1.88 each. I got three different kinds. Salsa was 2 for $5. The grapes for $1.88/lb and I think it was just over a pound. The ranch wasn't on sale. 

 A lot of these we could have got the generic brands but Albertson's was giving away extra game pieces for certain items. We are missing one piece on a few prizes. If I am going to play, I might as well play hard. Yes I could have saved a few more bucks, but we could win some pretty big prizes. It's worth a try right? I'm just happy we saved almost as much as we spent. It's the best we've done so far. It's no 95% savings like the people who are into extreme couponing, but I'm not doing too bad with the coupons and in store deals for being only a few months into it and only shopping at one store a week. I'd really be saving more if the store would double the store coupons with the manufacturing coupons and if fresh stuff was cheaper. I've said in numerous blog posts how fresh produce, meats, milk and cheeses will give you high grocery bills. I did cut back on the vegetable purchases since I have frozen (fresh) produce in the freezer. I only grabbed green onions and a red pepper for dishes I plan to make soon. 

In between all this we went to T-Mobile to look if there were any phones that fit the three criteria that I want but I didn't find anything immediately. We did go to Hastings to buy some movies. Buy two used and get another for $1. I also finally got the newest Linkin Park cd for $9, which is the cheapest I've seen it. We decided laundry could wait to be done on a later day since we didn't have as much as we normally do.

All in all, the day wasn't horrible. I didn't get much else accomplished but I think today was a good day.