We love it. We live in a three bedroom apartment with three adults and two children. This gets us out of the house and raises our standard of living a bit plus gives us more to bless others with.

JoAnne is off to do a shop this morning and I'm taking the kids to a McDonalds playland where I can work on WiFi and the kids can eat breakfast and play.

For us it's all in the logistics. lol Who has to be where when to make the most money and get the most benefit for the time and energy spent. Benefits aren't just financial. This morning, I can write reports using WiFi and the kids love playland. And I have coupons for breakfast. lol

I think it depends where you live. It is very hard to make mystery shopping a full-time job if you live in an area that is comprised of cities or towns of less than 100K people. If you add merchandising to your job assignments, it can help you add a lot of hours per week.

I'm really tired today. Was planning on starting my new Maritz gas shops yesterday but needed yesterday and today to catch up all reports. I scored another $30 DQ today in town 25 miles away. I caught another shop on the way there and that's it for the last day of the month. By the time I leave for chorus rehersal later, I'll be completely caught up. Tomorrow's another day. Then I have 23 gas stations due by Saturday. Only a few food shops other than that. Unless I have to do those 5 minute back shops I'm trying to get them to let me out of. lol

I do this, plus a couple of other things, that all put together make out my living. Fortunately, I live with my Mom and Step-Dad, so my rent is cheap (although I have become the household's cook! It amazes me that when I'm away on an overnighter, I always find take-out boxes in the fridge when I return!), but between the mystery shopping (mostly announced service stations audits, to tell you the truth), the court research work I do, and working during the summer/fall seasons as a state inspector in cannery tomatoes, I do just fine. Plus, having the freedom to set my own schedule and pick and choose what I want to do adds a great deal to my quality of life. Oh, and my terrific road trips for jobs doesn't hurt, either!

Ron got laid off from his "real job" yesterday. Guess this is really going to be full time now for both of us.

I did fieldwork full time for 4 years. I did low paying jobs, but only if they were on the already previously planned route for the day and had an easy form to complete. I also did work in merchandising, auditing, focus groups, and product retrieval. I made a ton of money going out to the small towns to do facility audits and product retrievals. I was usually out the door between 7am-8am and back home noon-2pm. Reports would take 1-2 hours, then it was onto the emails, phone messages, and sometimes to the job boards. If you have the right situation (the top 2 would be a spouse who has the benefits at their job and live in a good location) you can do this full time. Don't limit yourself to mystery shopping. Pick up project merchandising work, some if it involves building displays and installing fixtures, but the work is not at all difficult. Sign up with Stericycle and get into their database to do product retrievals. I did only the occasional reset merchandising job because of the low pay $10/hr or so, and then never for the $10/hr. I had a blast for the 4 years that I did full time fieldwork, very much the best job that I ever had up to that time.

Some weeks I shop full-time, other weeks part-time. It varies. With gas prices going so high, I've declined offers that just don't cover the wear and tear on me and my car. It's really been hot in Texas these last few weeks. I'm hoping for some rain. I may cut back a bit because the heat just zaps my energy.

I'd prefer to nap in the air conditioning with my dogs if it stays this hot.

I am one of the full time mystery shopping in Malaysia. I have become full time since 2008 and really enjoy the job.I did more then 500 shops for the past 3 years. However last year I was hit by the crisi when the most jobs that I got are from revealed audit until the repective mystery shopping companies terminated my contract. One of the things that I learn from this experience is do not depend on only one mystery shopping company it is a risk because anything can happened

I own a cleaning company, and sometimes business can be really slow. There are some months where the majority of my income came from Mystery Shopping. I believe with a little more effort I could do it full time. My only problem is keeping track of when companies pay. That is what makes me concerned about going from part time to full time.

I do not shop FT, but I do shop more some weeks than others. I am lucky that my boyfriend makes enough money to keep the lights on and all of that, but we pay $178 a week for child support.

Some weeks I do it more that others, if I can find the juicy stuff that is worth all the paper you have to print it on. I try to make it so that I make over a hundred a week after gas/"small purchases"/thing that I run into that is such a good deal or so great that I feel like I have to have it.

The $100 extra dollars that I make I use to try to build up our savings. I would much rather do audits and merchandise any day of the week. Mshopping makes me crazy, and the other day I just got my first report rejection. I could have cried.

I try to look at it that I am getting a lot of stuff that we want or need for a very reduced price. Need to send a package anyway? Pick up a shipping shop. It pays you for something you HAVE to do anyway.

For example; I recently did a shoe shop. It had an $8 pay and a $10 RB. I went to the website and signed up and they sent me a $5 coupon. I had $4 and something rewards from previous shops. I shopped the clearance rack and got a great deal. I found a $100 pair of "Shape up" type shoes that normally sells for $70 plus a 60% discount. I applied my coupons and it ended up, after that $31 for the shoes and a six pack of socks. If you take of the $18 that was the original motivation, then I got the shoes AND the socks for around $13. I really needed walking shoes, so I look at it as a deal. I really love those shoes, which makes it even better.

Some weeks I feel like I am drowning in scrap paper from past shops that you have to keep. Other weeks I just wait it out, then when I find good stuff I go into a frenzy where I accept most of what comes my way. I find that if I save stuff, I can re-use a lot of the forms for other shops. I have created systems using different colored highlighters. After that, when they are scrap, I use the used paper to print out my coupons for grocery shopping. Who cares what is on the other side, just make sure to check that there are no SS numbers or stuff like that showing.

I shop part time. I center on dinning, movies, and recreation for me and my wife. The pay is not great, but if you can get gas money to cover car expense, then it can be worth the effort.

I spend time doing a fair and real report, so my hourly earing is not much, but still worth the reward. I usually clear several hundred dollars a year after expenses which I keep accurate track of.

I have been doing this for over 8 years and kinda know how to avoid the bad shopes: i.e., lots of work and little pay. This way I can keep my reports accurate and meaningful to my ms shop companies.

Its mostly fun and I and my wife get to eat out, go to movies, stay in motels/hotels, play minature golf, etc. But you can really get stuck if you don't pick and choose wisely.

ed

I live in a very rural area and since I refuse to drive more than 50 miles one way for any shop, I am limited to a 5 county area and only shop about 40 hours a month.

I think that you can so this job full time but to do it full time you have to be in location where there are lots of jobs available. I have been doing this now for over 10 years and love it, but because of my location I just do it part time and make a pretty nice part time income.
There are some great companies out there and have found if you do good work for them they will send or call you for help, and even ask you how much you want to do the job. I have 3 of them that do it and they pay pretty well.

Cuddlescanada,

who are the 3 companies you like so well.

edtate@aol.com

Working 20 hours a day. Does that qualify for full-time? lolol Getting a bit manic so I'm going to have to stop and get some rest and regroup. I'll be moving by the end of the month after another 3-4 day road trip. Will take a little time off after getting in all the gas shops I have on my list for June. In the meantime, I'm picking up bonused shops and post offices as they roll in. I should have taken today off but wound up doing a breakfast, electronics store, retail clothing store, pool supply p/r, and an ice cream shop this evening where I got free ice cream with my grandkids. Payback is rough because I have two more reports that have to get written by 10 am and still have 8 more Shell shops to write. Gotta get off the forum and start boogie-in', lol