@LIJake wrote:

Shop + Travel + Report Time, $22.45 per hour.

One opinion, thanks. Do you think the $.56 travel allowance should be factored in?

My routes are multiple day routes. It's hard to allocate expenses to individual shops or days. I have found that I need to bill $50 an hour (using the method above, total travel, total shop time, total report time) in order to make a decent overall profit. I only care about billing rate and don't even try to figure net income per hour. It's a futile experiment in my case.

I posit that if you KNOW you must bill $50 an hour, you already know (albeit perhaps subconsciously or intuitively) what you need in order to "net" a "living wage" (although it's not wages, per se, I'm sure you understand what I'm saying!).

I agree, per hour is a futile effort. But it is mentioned so often that I m curious how shoppers arrive at it. I know how bgriffin, JASFLAMT, and MFJohnson calculate it and each is a bit different. As I've said, income compared to expenses is my daily guideline.

I stopped sharing with newbies because they don't want to spend the money required or don't want to wait for pay. Although I explain both. So I gave up. I just direct whomever asks to this site and tell them go from there.

@LIJake wrote:

@JustAnotherShopper wrote:

When counting your per hour (or per week), do you count travel and/or report time? I'm just curious. the car.

There are 4 different per hour rates in my post. As I said, I am more concerned with the income/expense ratio

Thanks. Idk how I missed your post yesterday; my wifi was acting so that could be a reason. Expenses don't bother me I guess because I used to spend $30-$40 a day at my old job. Didn't realize until I went through my receipts last week that I really don't spend nearly as much as people told me I would doing this.

This job helps with my spending, I'm shopping which keeps me out of the stores shopping. When starting,
always spent more than needed, learned how to work it fast. I only buy now if I love it and do it on my own time,
Hourly wage, joke or what, I have a monthly # I'd like to fill, and try for that, however a couple of my companies have slashed their pay, so not working lately.....I had a good run, just take what I enjoy and in my town, saves on time and gas...the driving in L.A. is a deal breaker.

@JustAnotherShopper I take public transport most times, too. It's cheap and it's a great way to work on reports while traveling, which would be otherwise downtime. My favorite is when I can get a bunch of shops in Atlantic City and they're all within walking distance. I have an hour bus ride on the way home to work on my reports and am often done before I get home. Bus costs 4.50/way, where the tolls alone are more than that and there's no wear and tear or mileage on your car.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@ceasesmith; That's why looking at hourly is ridiculous and cannot be applied across the spectrum, though.

$60/hour nets me a one-bedroom apartment in a questionable neighborhood. I absolutely could not make a living as a full time shopper with my lifestyle and location. I need multiple income streams.

Your $25/hour might offer a better lifestyle than my $60/hour.

I think it's important to consider your hourly pay. After every shift I do the math and see how I did. If my hourly pay was ever too low I'd probably consider doing something else for money other then mystery shopping.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2019 01:29AM by Jbrz123.

@Jbrz123 wrote:

I think it's important to consider your hourly pay.

The point is that you should average the pay monthly or yearly and compare it to what you need for a comfortable lifestyle. Comparing your hourly pay against other shoppers is meaningless....and it's never a consistent wage.

Why push hourly, everyone knows what they need, strive to meet that, months will be different, so don't be hard on yourself, another job will come along. I did o,k. with Ipsos, now that they cut their fees from my 17.00 to 11.00, refuse to work that long for 11.00. What seems close and "easy", now at 11.00, ten foot pole. Might as well have a good meal instead with an 8.00 fee. I do think preference is given to those who do hard locations on a route.

If my little fingers are efficient when I am completing reports today, I will make more than $80/hour today. If the fingers are sleepy, the hourly rate will slow down by a bit. Bu still.... Hah!

@bgriffin wrote:

My routes are multiple day routes. It's hard to allocate expenses to individual shops or days. I have found that I need to bill $50 an hour (using the method above, total travel, total shop time, total report time) in order to make a decent overall profit. I only care about billing rate and don't even try to figure net income per hour. It's a futile experiment in my case.

This approach makes some sense to me as the news reports, at least in our country, work on an annual salary as an example of how much people earn or need to earn for a decent living. The only issue I have is that since you travel a lot you are able to deduct a lot from your fees so your taxes will be lower than those "employees" the reports talk about. But that will just mean earning your annual amount will actually net you more money in the end so it is all good. This method will give you a yardstick to measure your earnings against the reported earnings and needs of most other people. It is nice to have a comparison figure since you do this full time. Lots of others have variations in what they earn by season, weather or other conditions. The total at the end of the year is important to know if you reached your goal despite variations from day to day and week to week. .

@sandyf wrote:

The only issue I have is that since you travel a lot you are able to deduct a lot from your fees so your taxes will be lower than those "employees" the reports talk about.

Exactly. As I detailed in another thread recently, I pay taxes on MUCH less income than my actual cash flow (which is the yardstick I use to measure how much I make a year).

@bgriffin wrote:

I pay taxes on MUCH less income than my actual cash flow (which is the yardstick I use to measure how much I make a year).

....and this is why I include reimbursements in (a separate column) in my month balance sheet. I see a direct correlation between my direct expenses being lower when my reimbursements go up. I have a monthly budget for when I'm in shopper mode, and another for when I'm not. It's about a $1200 difference!

I was in business for 15 years. I learned you have to COVER you expenses. Someone mention $.56 per mile use $ .60 per mile. ( this is TOTAL amount I drive). I have found using route planer in MapQuest works best for it gives me the estimated amount of gas I will use according to the vehicle I use and the government amount of the millage they give you ( the current IRS Mileage Rate of 54.5¢ for 2019) plus the shop fee plus motel expense. I make up the remainder with not paying taxes when I file that year. (Business Expenses) I cannot make any money if I tried to do and hourly rate ($20 per hour) but i can if I what I need extra for the month ($3000) I have to do this as a route and what and average for each shop. $ 3000/60 shops=$50 per shop or 120 for $ 25. It is hard to come by shops in my area to start with and doing narrative shops are not something I can do easily so what shops I can find on Presto, G Spot,Jobslinger or Mystery shop company web site for the companies that have work in the four stated around me is the way I have too. A car or SUV that is cheap to run is the best addition to have along with GOOD Internet at the Campground or hotel. I mention the campground only if your partner is mystery shopping also and you are not in a hurry to the next town. I am doing most of the shops in two weeks a month but it is hard to fine a route that works sometimes especially during the summer when you are fighting to get the shops because of all the mystery shoppers on the road and as you are looking to make the money for the month.