Just finished week 3. Time for an update.
As you might imagine, I did not go 3 times a day for 21 straight days. Total trips was not 63. It was 15 trips in 21 days, for an average of about 1 trip every other day.
COSTS
The 15 trips have totaled $162. I was alone for 11 meals, with my youngest daughter for 2 trips, and with my wife for 2 trips.
My daughter had only soda, while my wife also had a meal. Figuring $17 for 13 meals, plus $27 for the 2 meals with the wife, the Olive Garden rung up about $275 in purchases for the $162 I have paid.
My wife also had a meal each time, so that does increase the costs for those 2 trips. They have a nice lunch special here, and it looks to be a regular price and not a special. For $6.49, you get bread sticks, plus unlimited soup or salad, plus a small sandwich and fries. She does as I do, filling up on soup or salad, and taking home the sandwich. It is still a pretty good value for what you get, but each time we do this, that trip costs $11.50 instead of $3.00 for going alone. We joke that she is an expensive date:) She was not all that up to the idea on waiting while I eat, since she get to have soda whenever she wants to. She also understands that if she went as often as I do, the pass would not be worth the additional cost. I am sure we will continue to go together about once a week.
As before, I value my pasta meals at $13 each, and my wife's meals at face value of $6.50, or $208.00 of "going out food value". My card has also paid for itself in going out value.
As far as ingredients, still using $7.00 for each of my meals, and $5.00 for each of my wife's, I have received $125.00 in food value. I should reach my costs in the next 2 weeks.
Most of these trips were piggy backed on other errands, but some were just for the sake of OG. I am not counting gas, though I probably should.
TAKE HOMES
It gets hard to calculate, since there is so much food, especially one time in a story I describe below. I estimate that each take home is 3 meals, plus the meal as I eat it, plus 2 meals for each time my wife goes for a total of about 64 meals for $162.
If we eat 2 meals a day, the family has had 168 meals in that time, or about 1/3 of them Olive Garden. They are not yet saying "no more". We'll see after a few more weeks.
EXPERIENCES
By far the best experience so far was with my 10 year old daughter. She loves the idea of the free soda, so we went after her gymnastics class. I brought that day's lunch with me so she could eat on the way, and she seemed to like that. She wasn't at all hungry while she was enjoying the soda. The waitress brought a plate and told us she could also enjoy the salad, but that did not feel right with me. She did pick through some of the cabbage pieces and is now very good at telling the difference between red cabbage and a red onion :). We will make this a scheduled weekly trip until the end of the pass program.
We make a game out of using the table screen to select menu items the other needed to find.
While we were there the first time, the waitress was having a tough time. She received an 8 top just after we sat down. She was still very much on top of us with salad and soda refills, but there was some sort of delay in getting the pasta. She apologized profusely, and placed another order. Just out of curiosity I was able to look up the bill to see that the order was indeed in the system before she reordered it, so I do believe the mix up was in the kitchen. A few minuted later, she came with my pasta, but it was not what I ordered. I did not have the heart to tell her, so I just asked for a reorder of what I ordered the first time. About 2 minutes later, my original order arrived, so I now had 2 FULL orders of pasta, plus I just placed a reorder which is a half order. I was looking for my server to cancel my reorder, but she was serving the 8 top and I did not want to interrupt her. By the time she came to my table, the reorder was coming to the table right behind her. She again was so very apologetic for giving me SO MUCH FOOD for me to take home and eat for the next 3 days. My daughter and I had a great discussion about how those mistakes will often cost the server money, and how very often people get upset when mistakes happen. We were having so much fun with our game, I actually enjoyed the delay. It made our game last longer:)
After going with my younger daughter, my older daughter is again expressing interest in going with me. She has been busy with ACT prep and college applications, but those mostly conclude next week so there will be some time to go. We might go tonight before a meeting we are going to. She is also interested in planning a soda party with her friends.
My older daughter is on a robotics team, and they are also following my pass journey. We have a demo right around the corner of an Olive Garden next month, so I am trying to get a soda party planned with them.
My oldest goes to lunch at school, and say's "guess what I have for lunch today". Her friends all say "Olive Garden". Another priceless memory.
My waitress yesterday had not seen a pass yet, though there were several at that location in the past weeks. This makes me realize how rare these really are. I am very much enjoying this little experiment.
DISADVANTAGES
I love to cook. I have not made very many meals this past month.
I had a $.99 head of lettuce spoil in the fridge since my salad is consumed at OG.
We make our own bread. The last loaf is 10 days old and we most likely will not eat it before mold grows. Zero lunch sandwiches in 3 weeks will do that.
WEIGHT
The first 2 weeks, I lost exactly 2 pounds each week. As of 2 days ago, I was actually UP about .3 pounds for the week. By this mornings weigh in I was also at a 2 pound loss for the week. I put a * on that one, since I skipped a meal or 2 to make weight. So 3 weeks, 15 trips and 6 pounds lost.
I did not go again 3 times in a day, but I did go 2 times in a day on 2 different occasions. When I go 2 times in a day, I eat very little of the pasta and focus on the salad and soup. When I go 1 time, I can eat about 1/2 to 1/3 of the pasta and still have calories for a nice dinner.
BONUS
As an added bonus, I told my brother about my pass, and he pulled out a $50 gift card from his wallet. He said he never goes, it was a gift to him, and he did not want it so he gave it to me. So I have over 16 future solo trips that will cost me $0. I will still include them in my cost totals, but by one estimate, the card has paid for itself in raw food purchases already. Thanks Bro!
That's it for now. Time to go out and enjoy one of the best Fall days so far this year.