Teenagers come in handy when Mystery Shopping

Jacob is a wonderful asset to have around when I mystery shop. There is just no way I could eat the fast food that I buy. I just rejoined weight watchers and am trying to lose weight, so I am bringing home most of the food I buy. I can't really tell you WHAT he is eating, as the mystery shopping companies don't like us to reveal the restaurants and fast food places we visit. Let's just say he is eating a lot and having two dinners most nights. He will eat fast food at least twice today. As a teenage boy, he is loving it! I swear he is a bottomless pit! I would rather have him eat it, then throw it away. I am getting double the pay for many of these shops or I wouldn't even take them. Now, let's just hope he doesn't gain too much weight!

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!

Changed the Laser Toner Cartridge

Remember the laser printer that my dad and step mom gave us? Well, we finally had to change the toner cartridge for it today. I looked back in the blog and we started using it on Jan. 30th of this year. It is now four months later and we figure at least 6,000 copies. Not bad for $54 for the drum and cartridge. We spent $47 and got two more cartridges. My black ink cartridges for my ink jet printer usually averaged about 200 pages so that would have been 30 cartridges times $16 a cartridge. That would have been $480! Needless to say, the laser printer has saved us a lot of money!

Most people don't print 6,000 pages in three months at home, but we do! Mystery shopping is a good way to make money, but you do spend the money too! I started an excel document to keep track of my expenses and plan on adding my new computer to that list too!

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!

Summer is Coming

Summer is coming and this is the time of year that I can do even more shops than usual. Of course, being off most of the summer is the reason why! I do have a few things to do with my teaching job over the summer. I have a three day workshop in June and a trip to Houston for the Statewide Conference at the end of July. Last year I worked quite a bit during the summer, but I have promised myself and my partner....well and the kids, that I wouldn't work as hard this summer. I printed a calendar for June and have it quite filled up with shops, but I also have at least ten days blocked off NOT to do shops.  I am even going to visit my mom in Marshall at some point!

I enjoy doing the shops and making some extra money. It allows me to buy things the boys need as well as take them off for fun activities. It also helps pay the bills. I work weekends during the school year and over school holidays. However, what is the point of making extra money if you don't enjoy life a bit! This is another reason for slowing down a bit. My exhusband got a full time job and I am receiving child support again and that changes things for me too. Of course, if I could just win the lottery then I wouldn't have to work at all!

Pay Attention!

I did two gas stations yesterday that required photos. I have had two long weeks at school and was very tired when I came home! I threw some dinner in the oven and sat down to try to get at least one shop done. I downloaded all the pictures I needed for both shops and resized them. I then put them into folders...one folder for each shop. Well, some where along the way I mixed up some photos. I realized it after reporting on the first shop. I reported the second shop and woke up today to an email stating that I had loaded the same photo for each shop and I needed to fix it. I am STILL waiting for the company to open up the shops online so I can fix the situation.

Lesson learned here:
1) Don't rush when trying to do a shop
2) If you are tired, wait and at least eat dinner before trying to report the shop
3) if possible, don't do two of the same shop on the same day and if you do, PAY ATTENTION to the pictures

I am off to see if the shops are open on the website...I sure hope so!

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!