I am just wondering can you make money from this without having a second job? I have always been curious about Mystery Shopping but was very skeptical

rosangie@gmail.com

MANY shopper do this as a full-time thing...but, you have to WORK at it full-time (and, maybe, then some) if you want to make "full-time" money. Depending on where you live and the number of shops available in your area, this might not always be possible. I know several people who have made this into a full-time profession.

MOST shoppers, however, only do this part-time to make "extra" money. It's pretty easy to make $200-$500 a month (or more depending on how hard you work at it) doing this part-time.

If you're interested, take a look at the "How to get started as a mystery shopper" sticky/topic on the top of the this forum directory. There are posts there that SHOULD help you to get started and answer most of your initial questions. As you have other comments or questions, please post them. We have SEVERAL experienced shoppers as members of the forum and SOMEONE will, no doubt, be able to guide you.

It is posssible to do this full time but you have to really work at it. I have been doing it full time for about two years but it took a long time to find the right Companies that could give me the amount of shops I needed to do. I have one Company I can usually do about 100 shops a month for and then about 10-15 more that I can use as fill-ins. I can usually do about $2500.00 a month. It is not the main income for our household so it is enough to make a good living. I will be going on SS in March though so I have a feeling I will have to cut back for awhile as I will be only allowed to make so much a month over the top of my SS. I guess I am actually ready to slow down anyway. If I can stick to the one Company for awhile I should still be able to get a good check each month.

It depends a lot on what is in your market and how saturated your market is with shoppers. I am not willing to go do a shop where the real benefit to me is less than minimum wage. In my area there are enough shoppers and few enough jobs that it is rarely feasible to set up a route except of really really cheap shops and such a route inevitably yields less than minimum wage once you have gotten your notes together to go, burned gas to do them, spent out of pocket (often for things of no real benefit to me), done the reports and the record keeping. For some this may work, but I always kick myself at the end of a route for having "fallen for that again!"

I find I have less competition for shops requiring a bigger outlay of shopper funds, and these frequently show up with attractive bonuses. I don't mind spending $50 to be reimbursed in a month or two with or without a small fee IF it is something I would spend money on anyway. I enjoy restaurant shops in that kind of price range where it is dinner for the two of us. I do oil change shops in that kind of range. I do the Target shops if there is something I need from there. But a purchase and return where I spend $50 or more that I get back "immediately" when I have to make a second trip in 24 hours for a $15 fee is just a rip off.

I generally try for about $1000 per month in fees + reimbursements and often the reimbursement amount is more than the fees. But trying to make a living at this would be nuts in my market.

dquiring ---
I'm not sure exactly how this works, but both my husband and I are on Social
Security and we can earn up to $30,000 with no penalty.
Perhaps the amount you can earn is based on how much SS you're collecting.

It varies by when you were born, but in general if you are working and collecting social security before full retirement age you can have benefits reduced by $1 for every $2 you earn over certain limits. And that would be earnings if the particular recipient earned over the limits, not figured as income as a couple. To figure your situation, take a look at [www.ssa.gov]

In any event, with a little planning you can work like heck as a MSer and not exceed the limits because remember you have expenses and your reimbursements are a "cost of doing business" for your MS work and although they can have some real benefit to you, they are not taxable.