I feel like with gas money, and everything, i don't like going more than 20-25 minutes away. Even still it's like, "i just drove almost an hour to profit maybe $10, what's wrong with me?" Shops close by are great, don't get me wrong, but the drives really make you question what you're doing with your life, at least in my case lol.

You may have answered your own question. Time to start making simple routes so that you get 3-4 shops out of that hour of travel time and then work up to longer and/or better paid routes. It all comes with practice.

Take the simplest case of this being an isolated shop (not part of the route) which pays $15 (no purchase required). If I have to drive 5 miles each way, the IRS says that the mileage is 10 x $0.575 = $5.75. That means that everything else has to be worthwhile doing for $9.25. Lets assume that it takes you 10 minutes each way , and you value your time at $10 per hour ($0.16 per minute), then 1/3 hour x $10 per hour = $3.33 and now you are left with $5.92 to pay for your time in the store, preparing for the shop,and reporting it. So, $5.92 / $0.16 per minute = 35 minutes. If your time in the store, preparing for the shop,and reporting it combined take 35 minutes or less, then you are making your required $10 per hour. If your goal is to make $20 per hour, then I can tell you already that with the timing assumptions above, you would not be making your goal. I hope that helps.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2015 03:22PM by myst4au.

Jay, I look at it this way. On every job I've ever had, I had to drive to work and at the end of the day I had to drive home so nothing has changed. I make every effort to plan my work so that if I'm going farther than the nearest small town I have a full day's pay lined up. I'll shop the nearest small town for less total money that day provided I can combine personal errands with the day's run. I do all my personal errands on the way to shops so I don't have extra vehicle expense for the errands only. For example, if I have a medical appointment in Fort Worth I'll know far enough ahead of time I can book some work over that way and get it on the same run.

Driving an hour to make $10 is not logical and I agree with you that would be a loss. That's exactly why I don't do it. When I'm looking for work I'm not looking for a shop. I'm looking for several I can put together for a good day's work. Sometimes I can put together a really good string that I can work in one day.

You're smart to think about the time and money spent driving. If you don't like to drive, that would color your decisions on shops to take. I love to drive and I'll often drive a little extra to take a "new to me road" and have a look at what's there. My favorite drives are in the spring and summer, and every year I'll deliberately book some work down south just so I can see Central Texas leaf out and bloom. I make some money those days, but the money is not the deal. I want to see the rivers rolling and the trees swinging in the wind.

How far am I willing to travel for a $15 shop? Almost anywhere if I can build a string and I want to go.

It depends if I would already be in the area or the store as well as if it's something I would really like to do.

I don't drive that far for so little unless I can make a route and do several shops. Then, It makes sense and I am making a good profit.

I don't usually do small shops if there are just one, with a couple of exceptions. What I do is look at the emails that come in and choose a bonused shop. It could be only $20 and 40 miles away. But then I'll start looking for shops to add to the drive. There is almost always a Sonic or Arches, and there are usually other shops I can find. If I can find enough to pay my mileage and at least $10 an hour I do it. But I don't take the first one until I have at least two more lined up. When the well bonused shops appear, its a golden opportunity to make some good money for the day. Not with one shop, but with many shops. That one shop is the base that makes looking for the others worth the time and effort.

I like this work because it's flexible. I can go out for a hard day's route and the next day I can lay up at the house and do all the reports that absolutely didn't have to be in by midnight yesterday. If you think they all have to be in by midnight as stated, then you're a victim of your own perception. Be sure you check with your companies about whether you can report next day after a long route. Many of them will agree. Others have strict deadlines so be sure you get those as required. Just know there's a difference and know what that difference is.

Now here's the beauty of the day after. I don't have to get up any certain time and I can relax while I do those reports. Last night I watched an episode of The Closer in which Deputy Lieutenant Brenda Lee Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) was lolling at home with her handsome guy Fritzi, wearing her Nick and Nora Pink Christmas Kitty flannel pajama bottoms and a green sweater. Well, I got up this morning and put on my Nick and Nora Pink Christmas Kitty flannel pajama bottoms and a green t shirt, both purchased with mystery shopping funds. Yeah! Here I am dressed like a movie star and lolling around the house, making a little money and having fun on the forum.

Where else can this happen?

I love you Mary. Is this where we all slap hands and do the happy dance?

Almost every time I do a restaurant shop the fee is under $15 and very rarely do I add stops for other shops to that dinner run, though I may do a little personal business like stopping in the killer Goodwill store near one restaurant shop I do or stopping by a non-shop grocery store to snag the specials (when that grocery store is not shopped), etc. There is a fair amount of personal business that can get incorporated into a shop run because it is in the best route to a shop, and this means that very few miles I drive around town are not attributable shop miles and therefore deductible.

What I am trying to say is that there is not a specific fee I look at but rather the overall benefit to me. Indeed you can, and should, figure out what benefits you overall and certainly driving 20 miles round trip for a $6 fee is not going to cut it, but if that $6 fee also comes with a $10 reimbursement for groceries you need anyway, then it can be a viable proposition.

How funny. In one way I could say I won't get out of bed for $15. The thing is the only place I can purchase wood for my smoker and until recently the only Penzey's Spice Shop were both about 25 minutes each way. Can you guess how often I was willing to pick up an easy $10, $12 or $15 shop on a day I wanted to go to those stores anyway

$25 wont get me out of the driveway. If I cant combine several shops for $75-100 for the day then its a waste of me time

Those Goodwill's pay pretty good and sometimes you can get them bonused

I rarely do anything for under $15, unless it has some other benefit, such as the reimbursement of something I need or want to purchase. I go about 30 miles. After 30, I ask for distance pay. The best is when you can find multiple shops in the same area and perhaps get distance pay and bonuses for more than one. For those who won't get out of bed for $15, chances are that the cost of living is very different where I am than where you are. The fees I get vary. Sometimes, I do a job and get $50 for about 30-45 minutes of work (time at the job plus filling out paperwork). Some days are very busy, and some days not much is going on. So, I fill in time in my schedule with lesser paying jobs, if that's what is available. We are all running our own business, and have to decide what is or is not worth it for our bottom line.

I can't think of anytime I have gone out for one $15 shop, or any one shop for that matter. I normally shop in a 30 mile radius of my home and don't have a problem putting together 4 or 5 or 6 or more shops. If I can do 6 shops, travel a total of 50 miles and earn $100 I have had a profitable day.

I am old, and 5 shops a day (which I have done once or twice) is too much for me with the 5 reports. My goal is $300 per month. That is $!0/day. I usually reach that, sometimes more. It needs to average out. I will do a shop in my town, for $10-15 if it is a company I like and not a hard shop. Otherwise I do $20 or more ones, and take the next day off. At my age, a $10+/hour job is pretty hard to find, except with mystery shopping/auditing,

For $15, I will do it if it's simple/easy and 1 mile away or less. Needless to say, that happens rarely.

My case is a little different. My regular job has me going to other cities, towns or whatever just about every day. I usually drive between 40 and 300 miles a day depending on where it falls on the month and when I decide to do them. I mostly get my jobs assigned in the first week of the month. Some are due that week others next week and some by the last Friday of the month. Every now and then I get asking me to go up to four hours several hundred miles away for 30 minutes worth of work. Sometimes I can do that other times I can't. I get mileage and hourly while I drive. If I can get a self-assigned shop when I have planned it out I'll do a $9.00 shop that is 50 miles away because I have the mileage and time covered. But it really bites when you can only do a meal shop once per day, Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner. Twice since I have been doing this I made close to $40.00 and hour but those are rare. Not as rare as hens teeth but pretty close to it. Almost as rare as finding a large diamond in the diamond park in Arkansas.

@2stepps wrote:

Almost as rare as finding a large diamond in the diamond park in Arkansas.

Dang! I live in AR and never could even find a tiny one...I tried for hours, too.

awesome replies. helpful info, and i see there are some characters here too haha. i'm learning now that it's all about building routes. before i was like "well if i see anything really close by, grab it", but now i'm realizing a little travel isn't bad if you can hit a bunch of stores in the area.

Recently I drove 145 round trip miles to perform a $12 Sonic shop that was heavily bonused. The MSC then offered me another fast food shop for $9 that was 125 RT miles away. The next thing I know this MSC offered me $15 and $12 to do the same shops, both with the huge bonus. My car broke down the day before I was supposed to go so I had to cancel them both, so I missed out on the big bonuses. I enjoy driving and money doesn't matter to me because I am retired with a great public employee pension. I deduct the miles too.

As others have mentioned, I use the IRS mileage rate of $0.575 to give me an idea on whether a shop is worth it or not. At the same time, I evaluate how long the shop would take me and what other incentive there is for it. If it's a movie night out or a meal I don't have to pay for (other than my commute and time for the report and visit), I take that into consideration as well.

Shops by route, for example = 7 shops within all 20 mile radius, each for $15.00 or more 7 x $15.00 = $105.00 not bad... that is how I do it.. and on my chosen slow days, 2 nearby if possible... only thing and main disadvantage is completing all those reports afterwards...

Just because I reached the finish line, I still have to fill in the reports...bummer!!!! Tried speech to text.. to simplify typing, etc. Though still needed editing, grammar and capital letters, and punctuate, so still gotta make lemonade the hard way and type in the reports, lol.

I run a little different then some I say. $15 how far? I would go 20 to 30 miles depending on the cost of gas. I do not take mileage. Why you ask? As of may 18th my car had 249827 miles on it ( I know this as it's on a tire change receipt). As of right now it has 265191. 15364 miles multiplied by .56 cents a mile= $8603.84 in available expense. I use real expenses and I know they say it all works out pretty close but I have not found that to be true. I believe that deduction is more useful to a corporation than to an individual but that could be my unique tax situation. Last year if I would have taken mileage I would have shown a loss of $2000. By reporting real expenses I was actually able to get EIC and the increased refund amount more than covered my self employment tax. 30 miles= 60 round trip = 2 gallons of gas now approximately 2.60/ gallon = 5.20 and I do not value my time as I look at as I got nothing better to do. The main reason I would go to a shop for that amount by itself would be doing the MSC/(scheduler actually) a favor and in return I get called when big bonuses start flying and also get prefered status on some shops before they hit the job board.

So the value is more than just profit at that time. I once used the field agent app for android to do a 325 mile round trip doing Field Agent jobs only because I was broke and Field Agent often pays out in as little as 15 minutes.(not a typo). I grossed $250 that day from them alone and had it all paid to my pay pal by noon the following day. Not your typical available work from them but I have often used their jobs to fund my routes leaving the house with a few dollars and coming back with shops done and more money available then when I left. Like others stated you got to love to drive and I definitely do.

Irequim, I appreciate your point of view. I used to feel much the same way. However, this past year I've realized that the wear and tear on my car will lead to higher maintenance and repair costs, so I don't as many long distance jobs anymore.

If someone needs money and the jobs aren't at a loss, by all means take what you can. If you are looking for something to occupy your time and operating at a loss, please give that time to a local charity. Businesses realize it is cheaper to retain a customer than get a new one. As part of that equation we are already saving them money. A for profit company is not deserving of non profit assistance.

Using the 57.5 cents a mile blindly as a deduction from how much you think you are netting on a job does not make any sense to me. If you have a car that is costly to run you may be spending more than that. If you have a car that costs you a lot less, and many people do, then you are actually benefiting from not having to pay income tax on part of your income.

I completely agree. When I purchased a car last winter I took the total purchase price (included expected interest), added the expected cost of oil changes, tires, brakes, ect over the number of miles I expect to go over the next 3 years, added $1k in expected repair (not maint) costs per year, and divided by the total number of miles I expect to put on the car. To that I added my expected average gas cost per mile and came up with right at 22 cents per mile. That's the number I use to estimate my profit on a trip. The added advantage is that in 3 years when I sell the car to purchase another one (or trade it in), whatever I get for the car will be an additional "profit."

I drive new Mini Cooper which requires premium gas. All the MF red & white gas shops require a purchase of at least 2 gallons of gas + in store purchase for a reimbursement of a maximum of $5.00 and the job fee was $9.00. So, today I drove 4 miles to do the shop. Since I live in a popular touristy mountain town everything is more costly. My gas purchase of 2 gallons @ $3.45 per gallon = $6.70. My in store purchase (the absolute cheapest item I could find = $.26 making a total outlay of $6.96 (gas + in store purchase). Since I will only be reimbursed by MF for $5.00 I wind up negative $1.96. Bottom line: $9.00 shop fee less $1.96 = $7.04.

Hmmm...me thinks that I should have bought a different car or...don't do MF gas shops. The car is too much of a total blast to drive therefore the second option is the one that I'm sticking with.

@parkcitybrian wrote:

I drive new Mini Cooper which requires premium gas. All the MF red & white gas shops require a purchase of at least 2 gallons of gas + in store purchase for a reimbursement of a maximum of $5.00 and the job fee was $9.00. So, today I drove 4 miles to do the shop. Since I live in a popular touristy mountain town everything is more costly. My gas purchase of 2 gallons @ $3.45 per gallon = $6.70. My in store purchase (the absolute cheapest item I could find = $.26 making a total outlay of $6.96 (gas + in store purchase). Since I will only be reimbursed by MF for $5.00 I wind up negative $1.96. Bottom line: $9.00 shop fee less $1.96 = $7.04.

Hmmm...me thinks that I should have bought a different car or...don't do MF gas shops. The car is too much of a total blast to drive therefore the second option is the one that I'm sticking with.

$1.96 less fee, but 2 gallons of gas, where $5 of it was reimbursed. Assuming this is just the mystery shop variation of the shop, not the one that includes a photo audit, I'd say those gas station shops are worth it, depending on how you fit them into your route and schedule.