Sunday, February 10, 2008
More on Mystery Shops
By Lynn Forgy I've been doing more of the mystery shops this month, and the total for February (if I am able to keep the shops that I have scheduled for the remainder of the month, plus the 10 shops I've done to this point), I should have a total of $250 extra income to throw at my Debt Snowball. This sounds great, right? Well, it is, but there are some down sides to the mystery shopping that I wasn't aware of when I began almost 2 months ago. These are not exactly huge deterrents to mystery shopping, but I do think that they should be given careful thought prior to signing up for them. 1) The first thing I failed to calculate was the upfront expenses I would incur. This is mainly for fast food restaurants that I have to shop, and while the amounts seem somewhat trivial at first ($4.50, $5.75, etc.), if you have a zero based budget with NO wiggle room, this money has to come from one of your categories and can quickly add up. 2) The second food for thought is related to #1 above - the expenses and income you receive from mystery shopping are usually not paid out until the end of the next calendar month. So for all the shops I do this month, February, I will not be paid until after March 25th. These are the main things I've come up with in my "vast" experience (2 months worth). There is also the time factor to consider. Not only do you have to drive to the shops, conduct the shop and possibly take pictures (some shops can take several hours or more to complete), and drive home, but then you must complete the report and upload any pictures or images required. With this being said, I have managed to scrimp on some of my existing budget categories (I cut down our cable package so that bill will not have to paid this month, and my power bill was $50 less than what I budgeted for) and have been able to use some of this money to go towards my mystery shopping expenses. I am still in the learning phase of this side job, and I think I will get better and quicker at the reports in time. I plan to reevaluate mystery shopping as one of my part time jobs in a couple of months, giving myself time to really see if this is worth the time and effort. I will say, however, that having that extra $250 to put towards my debt is a blessing! Every little bit helps! |
posted by Krista at 6:46 PM
