It's Been a While

It's been a while since I posted. I started grad school again at the end of August and I am now teaching in the classroom again. I have been working as an itinerant (traveling) teacher and seeing three students a week and attending IEP (ARD) meetings for up to 50-70 kids a year. Plus supervising other teachers. Being back in the classroom has been rewarding, but it has kept me very busy.


I continue to mystery shop, but slowed down a GREAT deal in September. I worked a bit more in October and am now picking up more shops again. I don't really shop during the week because I just don't have time. I finished my grad school classes four weeks early, so now I do have time to do some SHOPS! I have been doing gas shops and lots of restaurants. I won't sign up for too many gas shops when it gets cold though!


I will still only work on weekends, but I have picked up SEVERAL shops this week while I am off for Thanksgiving. There have been quite a few incentives offered because the companies want to get the shops completed. It gives me a chance to make some extra money!


I'll try to post more often, but there hasn't been much to post about!

Summer 2014

I have really slowed down on the number of shops I am doing each week. I am taking one grad school class and both boys are home for the summer. Jacob will be heading off to college in the Fall and Elijah is going into the 8th grade. I am ready to slow down and spend some time with them. Financially, I am doing better and don't absolutely need the money from mystery shopping. I am taking some food shops for restaurants that I really like. I am also taking some high dollar shops that have nice incentives! I am also saying NO to a lot of shops when the companies call and ask me to do them. I am enjoying not being so busy and have the luxury of being picky when it comes to doing shops! NOW, when the gas shops come back, I will be jumping on those, but still not doing as many as I used too!

Top 10 Things I Do Because I am a Mystery Shopper

I have been mystery shopping for four years now, and I can't help but do things when I am out just shopping and NOT mystery shopping. These things have become habits, because I have done SO many shops.....so here is my list starting with number 10 and working to the one thing I do the most.

 

 

 

10. Pulling up to the pump and checking to see if the squeegee and paper towels are available.

 9. Feeling the need to TIME everything--how long to pump gas, how long to get my food, etc...

 8. Checking menus and menu boards to see if they are clean or damaged

 7. Taking a picture of my food. I will think "I need to take a picture before I can eat this" and then

      realize that this is not a REAL shop and I don't need a picture!

 6. Making a mental note of employees and if they make eye contact, smile, and if they are in uniform

 5. Noticing that gas station fuel signs are missing numbers or have damage to the numbers

 4. Keeping notes of an employees appearance--male/female, hair color, approximate age and height,

     length of hair, ethnicity, and if applicable facial hair

 3. Noticing if the employee is wearing glasses(this is almost always asked, the ones in number four

     vary from shop to shop, but not this one.

 2. Noticing if there is a manager on duty in a restaurant and making note of what he or she is doing

 

AND THE NUMBER ONE habit that I do ALL the time is.......

 

 1. Check to see if an employee has his or her name badge on!!!!! I will make note of it and then say  

      to myself...."this isn't a SHOP, you don't have to notice the name badge OR the name!"

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!

Dieting and Mystery Shopping

I decided to go on a diet a few weeks ago and it hasn't been easy. I have still taken several fast food shops, but I have to NOT eat what I buy. I usually don't eat everything I buy at the fast food shop, but it is hard when you are hungry. I have been checking calories online to make sure I know what I am getting into when I go to a shop. Thankfully, these shops fall on the weekends, because I don't do them during the week. Sometimes I bring the food home for Jacob to eat...he is a teen and he eats ALL the time! I have lost weight every week, so I guess I am doing a good job. I may need to try to find another company to work for that doesn't have so many fast food shops.



This weekend my partner and I are going to a nice Italian Restaurant for a mystery shop. We will be bringing leftovers home, that is for sure!

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!

Condiments!

We haven't had to buy ketchup in months, because of mystery shopping. Whenever I do a fast food shop, I ask for ketchup. The server generally throws between two to four packets of ketchup into the bag. I probably only use one of these packets and sometimes I don't use them at all if I am eating in the car. We have a side compartment on one of the refrigerator doors and we keep all of the ketchup there. We also end up with dipping sauces for chicken nuggets or strips. Sometimes we even end up with salad dressing! We keep it all and use it as we go with our meals. I think it is a great way to save some money. My boys LOVE ketchup and it is one less thing for me to buy. Sometimes my partner uses other sauces in one of her recipes. She sees what we have and makes something out of it. One other thing we don't throw away are unused napkins from restaurant/fast food shops. We keep them and use them. We don't end up with as many of these, but again, something else we don't have to buy! Even if you don't mystery shop,  you can save by doing this same thing. Keep those extra condiments for a later day!

You Got to Have Money, To Make Money!

The saying, "You have to have money to make money," is very true about mystery shopping....at least in the beginning. I work for five different mystery shopping companies. Two pay twice a month, one pays once a month, the fourth pays every two weeks and the last one pays weekly(about 30 days after your shop, so you may not get paid each week). Some shops, like the banks, don't cost anything when you visit. The fast food shops can cost me between $5 and $13 each visit. So I pay for my meal and then I get reimbursed and get the FEE for the shop. For some of the nicer restaurants I am out $25 to $40 before I get reimbursed. Some office shops only cost me $1because the company wants a receipt to prove you were there. I usually try to get something right around that $1 price.

When I get paid by the company that pays once a month, at least half of my pay is reimbursement. Now, the nice thing about reimbursement is you don't get taxed for that amount. I like that I can feed us a good meal and get paid to do it, so reimbursement is nice. However, by the middle of the month, I am really wanting that paycheck! Now I like to get paid every two weeks, but for that company I don't work that much. It is a balancing act. Like I said in my last post, not all meals are worth mystery shopping for. I try to choose something that I will like, especially if it is a high end meal. I put it on my credit card and then pay it when I do get reimbursed.

If you do decide to try mystery shopping, start off slow with the meals. Once you get first paycheck or two then you will have the money needed to choose more fast food/restaurant shops if you like!

Just Because the Meal is Free, Doesn't Mean You'll Like It!

I took a friend to lunch today as part of a mystery shop. It was at a local restaurant that also has a bar. The reimbursement was enough to cover the meal and tip. We ordered our food and waited in anticipation--remember I have done other restaurants, and I have never really been disappointed--and then the meal arrived. OH WOW, did we get some FRIED food. I ate about half my food and she did the same. Of course, it doesn't help that I am older and my stomach isn't as young as it used to be! Now, I will say, service was good and the atmosphere was as it should be, but the food wasn't that great. Thankfully, it is not a meal that I had to pay for! I will get reimbursed, but I won't be signing up for this restaurant again.

I have another dinner tonight and I am taking Elijah with us! I have been to this restaurant before, and am fully expecting a good meal. The reimbursement won't cover the whole meal, but it will cover up to half, and that ain't too bad either! Just a reminder to me, try a shop once before you sign up for too many of them. You just may not like that shop!

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!

Spoiled Myself

I have been mystery shopping for about 18 months now and using my laptop for input. It has been a good little machine. It has a 14 inch screen and was easy to use. However, I started wishing for a larger screen. I checked into laptops but the biggest screen you can get is 17 inches, so I decided I  needed a desktop. I started putting $10 away each week and saved the birthday money that I got. I found a 24 inch screen on sale for $139 and bought it a few weeks ago. I then found an HP 6 GB of RAM 1 TB of memory for the hard drive for $359.99. Well I didn't quite have all of the money saved up, but decided to get it. It was just too good a deal to pass up.

I am now typing to you on my desktop computer with the 24 inch screen. I have done a few shop inputs on this one, and find it quite fast and so much more convenient with the larger screen. The printers that I have, plus the scanner on one of those, installed quite nicely. I remember the days of having to have the disk for every component. Both printers installed quickly and easily. I also bought MS Office 2010 and got it installed last night. I got all of my websites favorited on Google Chrome for my mystery shops and the programs I use to rename and resize pictures.

I bought a new power strip off of Amazon and am waiting for it. I need to plug in my external hard drive to get all of my documents and pictures onto this new one, or at least have access to them on from this computer.

Four more days of school and then I really start hitting the shops, but I won't be doing as many as last summer!

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!

Keeping Busy!

I have been keeping very busy with my Mystery Shopping and my full time job. I am on Spring Break this week and have five shops tomorrow and three of those pay $14 each! I have several more shops over the rest of the week. Things have slowed down a bit this month, not sure why, but there haven't been as many choices. I am hoping more shops come out over the next two weeks.

I took my dad a sandwich from a fast food place I evaluated today. I do get reimbursed, but I hate to waste a sandwich! Jacob didn't like this type of sandwich either! I also fed us dinner tonight by doing a restaurant shop. It was for a restaurant I have not evaluated before, but it paid for all of our dinner except for 75 cents. NOT BAD huh??

Here's hoping for more shops!

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!!

Fast Food--Teen Boys

Jacob loves the fact that I am a mystery shopper. Wouldn't any teen boy like to have an unlimited supply of french fries and other fast food! At any given time you can open up my refrigerator and find french fries, mashed potatoes and several other side items. You might even find a hamburger or two! One fast food restaurant requires you to complete both the drive thru and to eat inside the restaurant. There is no way I can eat two meals so one always makes it home.

Jacob is also in the middle of a growth spurt and eating me out of house and home! I try to keep an eye on what he eats so he doesn't end up with a huge belly, but so far so good. He gets a good amount of exercise at school and he will be refereeing soccer soon. I don't have any fast food shops this weekend, but I am sure I'll be signing up for some more again soon!

How Do You Get Paid?

So how do you get paid when you are working for a company online? One company I work for pays twice a month by check. They pay on the first and the fifteenth. They have been very reliable. Two other companies I work for pay by direct deposit. It was easy to set up and has also been very reliable. One company pays twice a month and the other pays once a month. Now the laqst company I work for pays by Paypal. I wasn't sure about how that would work but I like it. I left my money there to accumulate and saved for Christmas. I just paid for Elijah's lunch at school with Paypal using my mystery shopping money! They pay every 30 days for each shop so you can get a lot of snall payments.

Each shop can pay anywhre from $4 to $14 a shop. Many times you are required to make a purchase to prove you were at the store. You get reimbursed for what you spend which can be between a dollar to two dollars. Now at the restaurant shops you get a lot more reumbursement, but a lesser fee for doing the shop. I can make quite a bit and sometimes the fee can be doubled if the company really needs the shop done.


Before I really start doing a lot of shops for a company I make sure I get paid. I worked for a company that solely did restaurants. They paid after 60 days. I got one check pretty easily but then they didn't pay me for my next few shops.I had a hard time getting in touch with them, but I finally got it resolved. I have learned to be careful.

I Survived the Weekend!

Well, I survived my busy weekend! I completed all eleven shops on Saturday in five hours. I got some gas that I will be reimbursed for, groceries, visited some banks and and office supply store. I had six shops on Sunday. I got a free lunch and a free dinner as well as more groceries!!

The dinner was very nice. I took a friend with me and we went out to a local restaurant and our out of pocket ended up being only $8.00!! It was not a fast food place....an actual restaurant! I don't do those too often! I like taking someone with me for those shops. It is no fun to eat alone!

I have a few shops after I leave work each day this week, but nothing too bad. I can still get things done and get home at a decent time for the boys!

This weekend will be busy too and I have Monday off, so I have several shops set up for that day too!

Waiting for Shops

I think one of the hardest things is waiting for new shops to appear. It is the beginning of the month and you just neve know when the shops will appear. My weekends are pretty booked for this month and even into mid-February. I just happened to look on one companies web site and the gas stations were out, then the next set came out.

Sometimes you just get lucky and check the web page and find new shops. When I find new shops I start checking my calendar to see what I can do. One trap you don't want to fall into, is setting up too many shops for one day! I am limited to working mostly weekends and those can fill up fast! Sometimes I get so excited about a new set of shops that I sign up for TOO many shops. Sometimes I can reschedule them, other times I can't! It is a learning process for each company.

I just signed up for two shops for this weekend with a new company I just signed up with. I always start off slow with a new company. I like to make sure they pay on time and there are no issues. I was with one company that did mostly restaurant shops and they paid after 60-90 days by check. I got paid on time for the first few shops, but then problems arose. I didn't get paid. I emailed them and no response. I finally emailed one of the representatives who had emailed me asking me to do a shop. I told her that I hadn't been paid and wasn't going to do more shops until I got paid. She got things rolling, but I didn't like the fact they I got no response when I emailed the help desk. Needless to say, I stopped working for that company. I haven't had any issues with the companies I work for currently and they all respond very quickly when I do have questions.

Part of the fun is the hunt for the shops!! Mystery shopping fed us for dinner last night and bought my lunch today!!!

What's for Dinner?

You never really know what we might have for dinner. Most days we cook something here at the house, but on other days it might be something very different. Just the other day I came home with food from three different restaurants. We ate wings from one place with french fries, then I had five side dishes from five fast food places I had visited....I had to purchase one item at each shop to get a receipt to prove I was there. Most companies require receipts, even at an office shop, for proof you visited the business. I was reimbursed up to a $1 for each purchase and I visited five places! Not bad! I also had a lunch shop earlier in the day, where I had to go through the drive thru and go in and order. I brought home a whole meal for Elijah! Most days I can't do very many shops, but when I am off for the holidays it makes it easier.

Jacob is very excited that I have four shops at the same food chain coming up in the next few weeks. I have to admit it is one of my favorite places to eat! He told me it was awesome that we would have food from there. Now by the fourth shop we may be tired of the food, but I doubt it. At least I don't have to cook!