4 fun dining shops

We had 4 shops this weekend, which we are all quite good. We started off Friday night with Lucky Strike Lanes, where we got to do a bar visit, restaurant, and 2 games of bowling. It was a pretty fun place, but kind of loud. Food was decent, and drinks were good.

Then Saturday, we did Naples at downtown Disney, great pizza and delicious panini. The Tiramisu was also great. It was a fun place, but the service lacked a bit. Saturday night, we did Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ, which was also a fun place, with good drinks. Really good brisket and tri tip with bbq sauce. Big old apple pie for dessert too.

Finally, Sunday for lunch we did a RA Sushi, which just opened this new location in dead hot Chino Hills. The food was great as always, but from the service you could tell this place just opened. Iced green tea is great if you've never had it.


So all in all, saved a total of $280, and made $6 (only the Lucille's shop paid a fee for the report). Not bad, considering we had leftovers from two of the shops.

Weekend summary

This weekend, we only did two shops, haha.
One was the Jazz Kitchen Express in downtown Disney, we have done this and the regular Jazz Kitchen like a dozen times in the span of like 3 months, which is very odd. Most companies, you need at least a 30 day gap between each visit, but hey. I like these because they are easy, and the reports pay $10. Food at express is decent.

On Sunday, I picked up a bonus paying Smart and Final shop. It paid $14, looks like someone did a last minute cancellation. This was easy and could spend up to $10 on groceries.

5 shop Thursday

Well, I had 4 shops today, this is a first. I had a Daphnes, Chinese Gourmet Express, which was just across the street from another one: A Touch of Romance. Also did a Trader Joe's ID verification shop and a Quick Stuff shop.

For lunch, I had Daphnes, and I also had a coupon to use, so I could bring some good home to the wife. I got reimbursed $15 for this and paid $10 for the easy report. Food was pretty good and they make it fast. The Quick Stuff shop was easy: Get $4 worth of gas and $1 of merchandise, and got paid $10 fee too. Then I did Trader Joes, this was even more worth it: Bought an alcoholic beverage (6-pack of TJs Hefeweizen) and just to see if checker asks for ID. Get reimbursed for the beer and paid $13. I love their beer. These forms each took less than 5 minutes to report too.


After this drove a few blocks to do the chinese food shop, which was in a mall. I bought $10 of food and just get reimbursed for it. Then walked over to Touch of Romance. This was one of the best, since they send you a $40 gift card to use for anything, and pay you a $5 fee for a short narrative of the visit and how I was helped. Got some fun stuff for me and the wifie! It's great because you do not have to wait for the reimbursements.

Then on Friday, we did a Pat and Oscar's shop for dinner. First time I have been here, pretty cool atmosphere, good priced food, and does not taste too bad. This was a very easy shop.

I dont like to pay for stuf

Tuesday, started off the "mystery" week nicely, with a delicious Bruegger's Bagel shop, which was an instant reward one. Unfortunately, had to present the bad news afterwards to the manager (employees failed to upsell properly), but he was okay with it. My poor sandwich maker said "Sorry, maybe next time" on my way out when she found out from her manager. Poor lady, she looked embarassed. But it was a damn good pesto chicken sandwich on a sundried tomato bagel!

Later that day, I did a Yankee Candle shop, where I bought two little candles, that smell quite nice, mango peach salsa and vanilla caramel. Wife will like that. And I also used the rest of two old gift cards from previous Auntie Annes mystery shops which was in the same mall, AND I also had a buy one get one pretzel free there, so I ended up paying about $1 out of pocket for two delicious hot pretzels, not bad!

Wednesday, I had a free Del Taco bean and cheese burritos for lunch (back of an old receipt), and picked up a free bag of hot, tasty breadsticks at Pat and Oscar's for signing up online for their breadstick club. I signed up originally as these clubs usually send you coupons every so often and I am doing a mystery shop later this week at Pat and Oscar's. Lucky enough, I also got a couple two for ones which I can use for my mystery shop later. Nice to get great value, and get paid to eat! Stopped at Target on the way home to get a free six-pack of Sunchips for the toddler's lunches. They just included this free coupon on some other product we bough. All in all, a great free week so far!


Tomorrow: 5 mystery shops total to do!!

Tip: Sign up for online "e-clubs" with different restaurants, and you will often get a free initial item and ongoing deals and coupons.

Weekend summary: 8 shops!

Friday was fun, after ending work early this afternoon, I took my toddler to downtown Disney and did 4 shops while there. I did two Sunglass Hut shops, which were purchase and return, paid $34 total, one Illuminations shop (candles), and a Haagen Dazs shop. This was lots of fun and easy to do. That Illuminations store is really amazing, good feng shui I guess. Haagen Dazs was alright but way overpriced. I spent $4 for a pretty average soft serve, but got paid $15 for the shop so it was cool. Got a nice Pomegranate candle from Illuminations, which the wife liked. The toddler always has fun at downtown Disney (Disneyland to her, hehe) since theres a bunch of stuff to do and look at.

Then in the evening, took the wife to the Yard House, where we got to spend up to $100. This was quite fun and drinks were really good, they have like over 100 beers on tap. The food was really good too. Then did a Millies shop the next day, kind of higher class Norms. Then Saturday to Sunday, we got another hotel shops at a Sheraton, which had an awesome pool. I think I want to swim more now, that felt so good since it was hot out in Ontario where the hotel was. The meals were really good there too. Also did a quick ID check shop while in Ontario on the way back. All in all, it was a busy but fun and FREE weekend!

Week of August 4-10=Major savings and profits!

So did a breakfast buffet shop at a hotel on Tuesday, which included valet, two buffets, and a coffee kiosk purchase. The shop also paid a fee of $20, not bad. The shop looked at testing both the coffee shop and valet. We had to leave dollar bills and jewelry in obvious locations in the car to see if they would be in the same place when we retrieved our car. We were also supposed to make an "impulse" purchase at the coffee kiosk right as the cashier was ringing us up. The employees passed, thankfully! I hate when I have to write a report and worry about an employee being disciplined or canned.


Later that day, did an Auntie Annes pretzel shop. I got the original pretzel this time, this one is the best since it just had salt on it, and not their flavor packet things sprinkled on. Also did a Virgin Records shop, where I had to check on a bunch of items being present, employees doing the right thing, and prices being correct. Also, had to see if an employee would greet me within 10 minutes. This shop is interesting because after making a $25 purchase, I had to give my report to the manager immediately and have him sign it. He was a bit disappointed by some of the stuff, but the merchandise was mostly in the right place. The cool thing about this shop is that they reimburse the purchase I made, which I can later return, basically making that as a profit!

Wednesday, I did an Auntie Annes in a different location, and in the evening I did a Z Pizza shop. This pizza tasted great, it was the Tuscan Mushroom one. I spent close to $25, which would all be reimbursed. You can really tell the difference between the ingredients when they are fresh, organic, and healthy.

Thursday, I did a Carl's Jr drive thru shop, which turned out to not be a drive thru. There was none as this was a on a school campus, so I just did a dine in, which is fine. This was an instant reward shop, where all they had to do was offer to give me a combo when I ordered a breakfast sandwich. They passed and it was fun to see them happy about that. On the way home I stopped to do a quick ID check shop at a gas station, paid $8 fee for buying a drink.

Weekly update

Have not had time or energy to update my blog but here is a summary of last week. Got some usual free Del Taco and El Pollo loco burritos (back of their receipts), and did two Spencer's gift shops; they are these weird/erotic/funny type stores with odd gifts. These two paid $8 each and I spent $5 at each one. I also did another Wahoo's, which was really delicious, try the Wahoo's salad with grilled fish, dang! Never had a grilled fish salad that tasted so good with salsa, awesome guacamole, good lettuce, etc. (never had a fish salad for that). This paid $8 and I got to spend $10. We also did a Norm's shop (old time/dungy diner), only because the wife somehow asked and received a $10 bonus fee, for a total of a $17 fee for a shop where we could spend $20 on breakfast, not bad, considering it's a few blocks away from our house. The food was not half bad this time.

At the end of the week, did another El Pollo Loco shop, which had a bonus (someone probably cancelled) so I got paid $12 for it, and spent $8. I basically got 2 meals since I used a 2-for-1 coupon there as well. And of course got another receipt, with a $1 off anything coupon on the back (store those free receipt coupons!). So it was a good week of mystery shopping all in all, but next week looks to be even better...

I have already done today (Monday) an oil change shop ($30), a pet store shop ($30 plus $10 fee), and a Togo's shop ($8 plus $8 fee). The pet store shop is great because I bought some random tick removal product and will get reimbursed $30 for it, and get a $10 fee for the report. The great thing is I can return the product this week, so basically make $40 off a short shop I did on the way home!

Later this week, I have two more Auntie Annes follow up shops, a breakfast buffet, Virgin megastore, Z pizza, A touch of Romance, and Yard house, not to mention the weekend (another hotel!). Stay tuned!

Tip: On mystery shops, ask for bonuses, especially if you see a shop has not been taken for awhile. You can get what you want often if you just ask. Also, take shops where you have a high spending limit but can also return the item to basically make a large chunk of cash when you get reimbursed.

Mystery Mania

Well, we had our weekend almost full of all mystery shops. We did the RA Sushi lunch shop near the beach on Saturday, this was just a $45 reimbursement without payment. That food was delicious there, still the wife's favorite restaurant even though it was our 6th time there. Then Saturday night, we had a Sarku Japan shop but we found out this place is closed during weekends since it's in the financial district in downtown LA so we cancelled it. That was fine since we ate lunch so late that day. At night, we stayed at another Sheraton in downtown LA, which was free, but actually not a mystery shop!! whatdya know. We actually used our loyalty points earned through all of our Sheraton mystery shop stays (6 stays in total), which gave us enough points to get a free night here, and no report to fill out, yay! so that was fun, although this hotel had no pool. We came all ready to swim, so that kinda stank. On our way out, I got the check out guy to comp the parking ($28 savings!!) after asking if I could use my remaining hotel points to credit the parking cost. He found out that we could not but he said he would just waive the parking fee! He probably saw I was a frequent guest and wanted to keep me coming, hehe. So the hotel really did end up being totally free!

But anyway, staying in hotels is fun, nonetheless. So the next day, Sunday, I did a Universal Studios shop, where I was given a free admission ticket and parking, and gave instant rewards ($10 gift cards) or "Oops" cards when they failed to employees who offered to upsize my drink order. I had to evaluate 5 different food places in there, which actually all served similar food and was quite low in quality. This shop I will not do again unless it's on a weekday since lines were so long and the pay ($3 per food spot) was not worth the effort. I did get to go to the park for free and park for free and get free food, but we would have had to pay for my wife to get in, and you had to complete all the food shops within a 2 hour period so the same employees were still there. This was just about impossible due to the long lines at each place. Anyway, so the wife sat at a coffee place in City Walk doing her work at least, while I went from line to line, not even getting to enjoy rides or anything, which had even longer lines anyway. But the fun part is trying the food, and then giving the rewards to those employees who succeeded, some of them are so excited, so that is rewarding for me.

Finally, that evening on our way home, we did a take out El Pollo Loco shop, where I used a buy 1 get 1 free coupon also, so I got like enough food for 3 (used for my lunch the next day) and got paid $8 for the report. Also, got an addtional $1 off any item coupon on the back of this receipt and they gave out scratch off items, which for me revealed a free crunchy taco and free churro, not bad. On the way home we also stopped to do a quick ID verification shop at a gas station, which paid $8 also. All in all, it was a fun weekend of free stuff.

Tips: Ask for what you want and you just might get it. Also, explore ways to save even more like using coupons during your mystery shops, or using points you get or frequent rewards from visiting repeated locations (i.e. hotel or restaurant rewards).

Shops here and there

Well, I ended up doing a lot of little shops this week, which added up to some good stuff. I also got a couple free burritos at Del Taco, and one at El Pollo Loco using the free coupons on the back of the receipts. On Tuesday, I covered for the wife and did a Ruby's Diner take out shop, which I did just in time. I also did several gas station ID check shops (employee needs to check ID when I try to buy tobacco or alcohol), which each pay $8, and I just buy a drink or snack when they refused to sell to me without ID. Very quick and easy, I just scheduled them if there is one right near me throughout the day or on my way home. On Friday, I got a free slice at Z Pizza (back of a Ralphs receipt) and I got another load of Soy Milk for the baby girl, 8 cartons for $5.12 total using coupons and sale price.

This weekend will be pretty nuts with all the mystery shops: Saturday we do RA Sushi for lunch, Sarku Japan for dinner, staying in a hotel for free in downtown, and then Universal Studios the next day. Also El Pollo Loco take out dinner shop on Sunday night. Stay tuned.

Total saved this week: $38
Total made: $39

Money making road trip: $250!

We took a trip up to SF this weekend, and ended up making quite a bit of money on each of our pit stops. For example, on two of the stops on the way back, we made $68 on one ID check shop and $63 at another. The shop took about 2 minutes to do and the report was about 4 questions, a minute to do. The fee was so high due to the continually increasing bonuses. Actually, on our way home on Sunday, I got an email from a scheduler and ended up emailing back and forth, stopping at a kinkos to get an instant reward or failure printed for the clerk I would test, and completing the shop on the way home. I actually named my price. You can do this when a scheduler desperately needs to get a shop done. The other shops were other ID check shops, one Rotten Robbie shop (had to offer a 2 for 1 deal) and we did two Subway shops, where they had to try to offer the Value Meal to get an instant reward ($20 gift card). I like doing the instant reward shops since you get to see that instant happiness from an employee for succeeding and winning a prize. However, the sad (and sometimes scary) part is when they fail and you need to inform them on the spot. My last ID check shop, this occurred with a big guy at 11 PM at night in some middle of nowhere town off the I-5. I gave him the failure notice and bounced out of there quickly!

In sum, we did 5 shops on the drive up, and 6 on the way back on a 400-mile drive. More than reimbursed for gas money, and I actually made more in a couple days than I do daily at my job. Also, had to buy small items at most shops when they refused to sell me alcohol, so had plenty of drinks and snacks! Total money made during trip: $252

Tip: When traveling or if you live in the middle of nowhere, you can get some valuable mystery shops with big bonuses since nobody lives or travels where you are.
Name your own price!

Daphnes again! Two in a row.

Got another late scratch Daphnes shop on Thursday, close to my last client. Got the same thing as the day before, and it was again acceptable. Good enough to take it for free and make $10. They did well on the report, but the employees never really checked on me as I ate as they were supposed to. That place is so cookie cutter, corporate, the food and restaurant just reeks of it.

Daphnes, McD's

Got a couple egg mcmuffins this A.M. (minus bacon, sorry canadian bacon), 2 for 1 deal as I had a coupon for it. For dinner I got $15 worth of Daphnes Greek Cafe which was okay tasting, and got paid $10 for the quick report on the shop. Daphnes is quite generic food, and hardly Greek, but for $15 of food it is worth it as it is not too bad for you and tastes alright. Would not spend my own money there, though.

Auntie Annes again, Del Taco

Today, I did a second mystery shop for Auntie Annes where I got to have a pretzel and drink and bought a gift card to be used for the same shop next month. I also used one of my many free Del Taco 1/2 LB. bean and cheese burritos on the back of receipts for lunch. Same one as pictured below in earlier posts. In the evening, on my way home I picked up a free Wendy's Frosty Float, which I got on the back of a Wendy's receipt for taking a quick survey. So I got like $10 worth of food today, and end up paying nothing and getting paid $8 for it.

Hint: Always check the back of receipts, you never know what discounts or freebies you will get.

Tom's Farms

Got $10 worth of apples today, pink lady apples my favorite from this cool market that seems to get all its fruit, veggies, nuts, and candies locally. And prices are quite reasonable. Check out their website, too. This mystery shop reimbursed and paid $6, report took about 3 minutes, well worth it since it was an easy stop on the way home.

Tip: Try to schedule your mystery shops right along your route, on the way to work, on way home, etc. to make it really worthwhile.

JoJo's Pizza to end the weekend!

Well, for our 4th mystery shop of the weekend, we spent about $25 at JoJo's Pizza Kitchen. Really good pizza, but horrible salad, I will try to post a photo of the salad below, but if they are smart they would not show it. Pizza was good and doughy. The salad had like old ass, pale lettuce with pizza toppings as the ingredients, other than the lettuce: black olives, white onions, mushrooms. The dressing came in a class little plastic container and looked like some Kraft italian dressing. Just did not complement the good pizza at all. Don't worry, I let the owners know in my shop report. There's one primary secondary (make sense?) benefit of these shops: it lets you actually give feedback that the restaurants or stores take seriously and can make them change things.

Lush

Got a Lush shop in Beverly Hills for my wife, she was quite excited about this one. She got to spend up to $20 and also get paid $10 for the shop. They sell like all natural, handmade, designer type bath and body products, so that was fun for her, glad she could do it. She got a product called "Whoosh." Better do some good whooshing for almost $20!

Then the same day we did another hotel shop, 2nd weekend in a row, at a Westin near LAX airport. This was fun as usual, since we got parking, room, 2 meals, 1 bar visit, and all other expenses reimbursed and get paid $25. The food was quite good here. These reports take almost an hour to complete but when the charges for everything are between $300-400, it is well worth it. Met an cowboy from Calgary at the bar, that was interesting. The little one loved to watch the airplanes fly close to us from the pool at the hotel.

Catal

This weekend was a fun one in terms of free stuff, starting off with a nice Spanish restaurant, some Lush stuff, nice hotel, and end it with some pizza.
But let's just start with Catal, a restaurant at Downtown Disney, like Jazz Kitchen. We were able to spend $100 (and stayed just under at $99).

The food here was great, they had these delicious beignets for dessert in a peach soup with ice cream. The appetizers of Empanadas were also very tasty, as was my entree of halibut. We got to sit up above on the second story overlooking people walking below, and it was a really nice night. Looking forward to doing this one again (although never thought I would pay $8 for a beer!).

Tip: The more mystery shops you do, such as retail, fast food, etc, you can be assigned more fine dining and hotel type shops.

Burrito and car wash

Thursday, I used some more unconventional methods to get my free stuff. I brought my lunch, but then for late snack, I used one of my many El Pollo Loco receipts, where on the back you can get $1 off any item by doing a quick survey online or on the phone. So I get a BRC (beans, rice, cheese) burrito that is $1.09 and I end up paying 10 cents. Not a bad deal and its quite a big burrito. Better than Del Taco in terms of healthiness. The picture doesn't look half bad, does it?

Then before soccer game, I did a car wash mystery shop and my car is damn sparkling clean now inside and out. I will be reimbursed about $17 for it and paid $5 as well. Report was easy for this one. Never thought you could get paid to get your car washed, huh? They did a fine job too.