Supplies You Will Need

I have written about the skills needed to be a mystery shopper, so now I am going to give you a list of supplies you may need to mystery shop.

• pens, pens and always another pen. I never seemed to have one in my car when I need one, so I bought a large box of pens and put them in my glove box.
• clipboard--truly a must have. When you are sitting in your car completing your input form you need it to write on. You also need it when walking around gas stations completing the form.
• pocket folder--it doesn't have to be a pocket folder, but something to keep all of your forms in for the day.
• something for receipts--I like to use a clear zip plastic envelope type thing. It's official name is a poly zip check envelope. Comes in handy!
• digital camera--truly a must have when doing audits. You can sometimes use your camera phone for small jobs, but you really need a camera for the larger ones.
• printer/scanner--again, a must have. I scan all of my receipts to send electronically in to verify my shops. I sometimes have to scan other forms. I got by with an ink jet printer for a while, but now use a laser jet printer for my shops.
• paper--well of course you need paper...duh! YOU NEED A LOT of paper! Take advantage of office supply stores that offer you rebates and/or rewards when buying paper.
• clips--paper clips to the large black clips that can hold a LARGE stack of paper...get clips.
• stapler--you need a good stapler and a LOT of staples. First you staple the input sheets together and then once you completed the shop you staple the receipt to your input sheets. This way if there is a problem you have the receipt and the input forms together.
• GPS--I wrote a whole blog on this, but I wanted to mention it again. A MUST HAVE!
• Stopwatch--most cell phones now have some kind of timing device or at least an app you can purchase to act as a stopwatch, but this is also a MUST HAVE.
• calendar--OK it doesn't have to be a calendar, but you better have some way of keeping up with your shops. I have shops scheduled through the middle of February right now. Before I even schedule a new shop, I look to see what is already on my calendar. I don't want to overbook myself, or be driving from one side of town to the other. I try to cluster my shops together by city when I can!
• Good computer--you need a good computer and good computer skills. Organize your documents on your hard drive into folders.
• File cabinet--again, it doesn't have to be a file cabinet. I use a drawer on my desk that holds files, but someway to organize the shops you have printed.

This should be a good start! I am sure something else will come to mind. Good luck, if you decide to become a mystery shopper. Keep a list of your expenses, you can write them off on your income taxes.

Here Come the Gas Stations

The last few days have been very busy. I printed my calendars out for January and February so I would be sure not to over book myself. Three different sets of gas stations came out in the last three days. We expect the fourth set to come out within the next few weeks. Two of these sets of stations reimburse for gas and you have to be careful NOT to plan too many on the same weekend. You have to be sure there is ROOM in your gas tank for ALL of this gas. Not a bad problem to have!

I also accepted several shops for the week of New Year's! I have very little next week, although I did pick up a $40 fast food shop that is about an hour from me. Well worth the drive! I am planning for a restful week next week.... I hope. It will be time to take down all of the Christmas decorations and spend any money I got as presents. The boys will have all kinds of new things too!

I am very ready for this break! I am looking forward to making some extra money that second week off though!

Those Darn Directions!

I have blogged about how important it is to READ the directions to a shop. If you make a mistake and can't correct it, you may not get paid. Today I had two shops that were at a fast food shop. I had to take pictures at this shop and thought I had them all. I had printed the questionnaire and quickly read the directions at home. There were six reminders for six different pictures in the questionnaire. I was able to carry it with me because this was a revealed shop. However, there were three pictures that weren't mentioned in the questionnaire, but they were stated in the directions. I noticed then when I was completing the input online. Elijah and I tore out of here at 4:45 to run to these two places and TAKE these pictures. OH MY! The sun was going down and some of the pictures were outside. We made it in time, but oh my, was I worried. I had completed the shops around 11:30 this morning, but had baked and taken care of some things at home, so I didn't even start the input until 4:30. Let's just say, I will be more careful with those directions!

Death of a Printer!

If you remember, I posted back in February of this year that my step mom gave us a laser printer. We saved a great deal of money with this laser printer. We did at least 15,000 prints on this thing. I recently bought a new drum for it, because even with a new toner cartridge the print was very light. However, after only a few days with the new drum, the printer started making some funny noises. It finally just stopped printing. I wrote the company an email and they sent a new drum, but it also wouldn't work. My partner and I came to the conclusion that the printer had finally come to its end.  We did some research and decided that we would each by a new Brother laser printer that was on sale for $79. Whenever she had wanted to print using our other laser printer, she would have to bring her laptop into the den to print. Now we will each have our own laser printer and can print all we want!

I had thought about buying a HP Office jet inkjet printer, but decided I didn't need something like that. My little HP(knock on wood) scanner/printer is working just fine. I use it mostly to scan and sometimes to print things in color.

I can also write this new printer off on my income taxes! Before purchasing the new laser jet printer, we checked to see how much the toner cartridges and replacement drum would be. We found them for a good price on line and will order them online rather than purchase them at the store!

New Shops

I haven't had much to post lately! I am keeping busy with my mystery shopping still. Going back to work has slowed me down quite a bit, since I can only shop on the weekends! However, Thanksgiving is coming up next month and I get a whole week off! Just today, one of the companies came out with a new set of shops. They start on the 17th and are daily until the first weekend in December. I have taken an average three shops a day over the Thanksgiving break and on the weekends. They pay $8 and it looks to be a 10 minute shop. There is only one page of input and you don't even have to interact with an employee!!! I took 21 shops!

I have promised myself to slow down on my mystery shopping. The first weekend of the month is usually my busiest weekend, just because of how the shops come out. Now you may be saying to yourself, YOU just took 21 shops. Well, those shops are over 10 days! As the month goes on, I block out certain days to take either NO shops or very few shops. I have started telling myself NO, when I start thinking over shops I might want to take. I also make sure I check my calendar before accepting new shops, this keeps me from over booking myself!

I am hoping that when Christmas break comes, I can pick up some extra shops. I do plan on doing a LOT of baking though, so I will block off days that I won't shop! This is also true for the weekends in December, since I like to bake for people at work to give out gifts!

I will be busy this weekend though! I have ten shops on Saturday and nine on Sunday! I do like those paychecks though and many of the shops this weekend I get reimbursed for the gas I purchase. WOOHOO!

Bonus Fees!

There are times when a mystery shopper can earn bonus fees for shops. This can really add to your paycheck. The majority of the companies I work for offer bonus fees at some time or another. Some offer them more willingly than others.  Most of them are not eager to offer bonus fees and with those it usually starts with a phone call asking if I can do a shop that is due soon, that no one has signed up for. Sometimes they ask you what you would like the bonus to be and other times they offer you the bonus.

Just a few weeks ago, I got a phone call from a company that has NEVER called me before. They offered me $12 bonus to do a shop that paid $7 already, plus $1.25 reimbursement. So I did a $7 shop, but with the bonus I was paid $19+$1.25! That made for a nice bump in my check. I don't get bonuses with this company very much.

Another company starts by adding the bonus on the website to entice people to sign up for the shop. They also send emails to you offering the shop with a $3-$5 bonus. This company also calls to offer you a shop. Just last night I got a phone call from them asking me to do a late night shop(after 8:15). He asked me what it would take for me to do this shop and I told him a $5 bonus. This doubled the fee from $5 to $10 plus up to $5.65 reimbursement. He agreed to the $5 and offered me another shop and agreed to the $5 bonus on that one and yet another one. I went from earning just $15 for three shops to $30 for the shops, plus a total of $16.95 in reimbursement. This is a food shop, so that makes for a late night snack for Jacob! One of these was a breakfast shop! It also makes for a very busy week this week!

Another company never offers bonus fees ON the actual website. They only call and they rarely offer the bonus. I generally have to ask IF there is a bonus and generally they will agree to one. Sometimes they won't and I turn down the shop. These are shops that no one has taken and usually it is because of the distance to the shop. It isn't worth it for me to drive for a $10 shop unless there is a bonus, and they usually agree to pay the bonus because they don't call until they are desperate.

I am going to try to slow down with the shops though if I can! It is nice to have the extra money and work when I want to work. It is hard to turn down a shop when a bonus is offered though!

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!