You Don't Have to Take Every Shop!

I have been mystery shopping for a bit over two years now. I work for seven different mystery shopping companies. When I first started, I took just about any shop I could get. Since the, I have learned to pick and choose. I don't do bank shops any more. They are boring and tedious. They can also take up a lot of my time on a weekend, and that keeps me from doing other shops.

I like doing the food shops, especially at the restaurants that I really like. In fact, I am getting three times the pay to go to one of my favorite places to eat tomorrow night, plus my meal is paid for. I have learned to read the fine print before taking a shop. Sometimes the pay just isn't very good or there is no reimbursement. Sometimes the shop is just too far away.

We are going out of town in a few weeks, so I just blocked off my calendar for no shops on that weekend. That is the best thing about mystery shopping....I can work as much or as little as I want. The second best thing is I get to pick and choose the shops I want.

Double Dinner

I had two shops to do this evening and the boys went with me. I needed Jacob for one of the shops. He had to see if he would be asked for ID when buying something. We finished that and headed to a fast food shop. I had to go through the drive thru and order something inside. Elijah and I didn't like the choices so I let Jacob choose two things, to which he replied "Double Dinner!" He was so excited.

I have to say, he eats a great deal of what I buy! Now that I am trying to lose weight, I am glad he does!

Weekend of Shops!

Between my partner and I we had several restaurant shops this past three day weekend. The majority of them did not go well for the servers. The food took way to long to get to us because they were just slow or because the order was put in wrong. Most of these servers could have earned a gift card of some sort, but none of them did. The managers were informed that they did not pass and didn't earn the gift card. The managers were not please, lets just say that!

The nice thing for us is we haven't cooked dinner in three nights. We have had some kind of meal from a restaurant to feed us! This makes for a cheap date night! We get reimbursed for 85-90% of the meal! We also try foods we might not otherwise try!

Too Many French Fries!

Between my partner and I, we do a lot of fast food shops as well as some fast casual(as the mystery shopper companies call them) and so we bring a lot of food home. Many of these shops serve french fries as a side item and so we end up with a LOT of french fries. You would think the boys would love to eat them, but even they get tired of them after a while. So, what do we do with all of those french fries?? We could just throw them out, but my partner doesn't like to waste food. Thankfully, she has a friend whose mom has a chicken farm, so we FREEZE all of the french fries and give them to her when we see her. Right now, we have two plastic grocery store bags filled with french fries! I am glad we have an outside freezer to put these in or we wouldn't be able to do this.

I go back to work tomorrow, so we shouldn't have AS much fast food as we have during the summer when I have more time to go to lunch for a mystery shop. I already have some shops lined up for next month though! I need to start saving for Christmas!

It All Adds Up!

There are some mystery shops that you can do right from your own home. These include phone calls and Internet inquiries. Each of these shops pays between three to four dollars. Now you may think that isn't very much, but if you do ten of these shops it could mean $30. I have noticed that these shops seems to go very quickly on the company websites. There are two companies that I work for that have phone shops and only one that has Internet inquiries. I like them, because I don't have to travel and is basically is easy money! Many of the shops that I travel to can pay as little as five dollars so to make money and not have to travel is even better. Now don't get me wrong, the five dollar shops add up too. I would say the average pay for a shop ranges from five to ten dollars. Some restaurant shops just reimburse you for your meal and don't pay a shopper fee. So, why would someone do a shop like that. Well, reimbursement isn't taxed and you get a free meal! Just remember, if you decide to venture into mystery shopping, that small shopper fees can add up quickly and become a large paycheck! Some shops even pay bonusses because they are close to a deadline and need the shop done....those are really nice!

Food, Food and More Food

Tonight was the first night I have had to cook dinner in three days! We have either gone out to eat or brought food home from mystery shopping. Monday night was a nice night out at a local restaurant that reimbursed for the whole meal plus tip. We even had left overs the next day for lunch. Tuesday night the boys ate pizza that I had gotten earlier in the day and I ran out and got my dinner with a mystery shop. Last night, I brought home dinner for everyone! I brought home lunch today! Every week is not like this. I usually can bring home only one meal, but it does happen. I have several more dinners coming up in the next few weeks.

Jacob enjoys eating some of the fast food that I bring home. I am glad he will eat it, because I am trying to lose weight and fast food is NOT good for that!

The really neat thing is that I usually get PAID to go out and purchase this food!

Update!

Well, it has been a while since I have posted. Life has been busy. We attended a family wedding out of state last week and school has kept me very busy! We contemplated doing some shops on the way, but decided it would not be worth the hassle! I just signed up with a new company to give them a try and see what they are like. One of the companies I work for has not had too many shops! I am also going to start a diet in a few weeks and I need to CUT DOWN on the fast food. Seriously, how many burgers can I eat! Even Jacob is sick of the fries...still! What 15 year old boy is sick of fries!

I am heavy into gas stations right now, evaluating three different chains. Two of them provide gas as part of the shop! Those are really nice, especially with the high price of gas. My partner and I went out to eat at a nice sit down restaurant last night for a mystery shop and we will visit the same chain again in a few weeks. Wing shops just came out so we will be eating those again soon!

I have decided to stop mystery shopping at the banks. OH, those are so tiresome. You just never know how long you will be stuck there. It really depends on what other customers are there. I just can't do them anymore! I might pick up a few here and there over the summer, but I really doubt it. I may not get to do as much mystery shopping this summer. I have a three day workshop in Richardson in June. I will drive back and forth for that everyday, but then have a three day workshop in Houston. The boys will stay home with my partner and I will be off at work! I won't do any shops on my way down there either!

Banks, Phone Shops, Fast Food and Gas Stations

I have spent the last week and all of today visiting shops. I have more shops tomorrow. The gas shops are really nice....2 gallons of gas! The bank shops can be pretty boring, but they pay well. I listened to the same information about credit cards four times today!! At least it is easy money, just boring. I also had four phone shops yesterday and two phone shops today. Those aren't too bad, but I don't like the paperwork. These phone shops are from a company that I don't use very often. They pay well, but don't have a large selection of shops and the shops are 21 pages! That is a lot to print.

I also woke up and went to an early shop to get breakfast and then later had lunch!! Tomorrow I have two more fast food shops and then a casual restaurant shop to buy dinner for everyone! I think Jacob may actually be getting tired of the french fries! I also have three gas shops and I just love those. I always need gas.

I do keep track of my mileage for these shops so that I can write it off on my income taxes. I did 108 miles today!!

Been Busy!

I had a very busy weekend with shops. I finished two different rounds of gas shops, but am still on one round. I get two gallons of gas for each of these gas shops and with gas at $3.49 a gallon right it is nice to get reimburse for those two gallons. I have about 30 shops total for this round of gas stations so that is 60 gallons of gas!! Not too bad! I also get paid $10 per shop!

However, the end of this month is starting to slow down. I have a few banks and gas stations to complete this weekend but not much more than that. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of gas stations left, but I am used to having many other shops too. Next months shops should start popping up around the 20th. My teaching job is keeping me pretty busy, so it may be nice to have a more laid back weekend.

I did pick up a grocery store for this Saturday and I have a take out dinner for Sunday, so no cooking dinner on Sunday night!

We are at 915 pages printed on the new printer too! WOO HOO!

New Printer and Shops

As I blogged about before, my stepmom and dad gave me a laser jet printer. The new drum and cartridge came in the mail and I got it all hooked up yesterday. I tested it and all was well. I started printing today and was having issues with some blank pages. I thought it might be the printer, but I decided to exit out of Goggle Chrome and just go through my Internet Explorer and print. Well, that fixed the problem.

I printed 21 shops that were 13 pages each, that made for almost 300 pages! I am going to try to keep track of how many pages I can get out of one cartridge. Each cartridge is only $18....thanks to my stepmom who sent me a link for a company that has inexpensive toner! I want to see how long the cartridge lasts me and then order either one or two for my next order! The website said it should last for 6,000 page so we shall see.

I should definitely save some money though, because I only got about 200 pages for a $16 HP inkjet cartridge! I don't really have to do the math to know I'll save some money. Even with $10 on shipping and handling, I am still paying a lot less per page!

I had a busy weekend with shops and got $15 worth of gas that I'll get reimbursed for. Tonight was the first night I have cooked dinner since last Tuesday. We had four nights of dinner shops and two of those fed all four of us. The other two nights fed two of us! We even got to go to a nice sit down restaurant last night and eat! Tomorrow night's dinner will be a mystery shop too and will feed all of us! I am going to enjoy that because I have doctor's appointments for both boys tomorrow afternoon and they can go three or four hours. The appointment is at 1:30 so hopefully we will be done by 4:30 at the latest and I won't want to cook!