I am curious how many shoppers do this full time or part time to supplement income. My full-time job is in finance. I am thinking going part time finance full-time mystery shopping. I would also like to know if anyone has anyone attended the shopperfest convention. If you have was it worth the trip?

I shop part time. I do not believe that I could earn more mystery shopping than what I do with my career - especially after considering my health benefits package.

Conventions: I've never really been tempted. If I were to shop full time, it might be different as I am fairly certain that I would be more actively working to network, etc. I might consider checking one out if it were local, but I can't justify airfare and an overnight trip.

I went to the MSPA gold shopper certification conference in 2003 which was fun and informative. I don't know what the shopperfests are like. I attended an IMSC conference two years ago that I enjoyed and it really opened my eyes in regards to video shopping. There are a lot of shoppers who do this full-time and travel, but I think most people who make a good living at it are doing a lot of video. This is not my bread and butter and I don't want to work full-time, personally.

Thank you both! That is valuable information.

I'm with JAS. I don't want to work full-time. I've gone to mostly shopping the first and last weeks of the month, and filling in a shop here or there for a favorite scheduler or if I need gas/groceries. I'll probably make one of the IMSC conferences sooner or later (I really think the next one ought to be booked on one of the 3-night Mexico or Caribbean cruises.) If you have benefits with your finance job, it's probably worth keeping.

I'm considering the ShopperFest just for tax purposes. A trip to Dallas would be fun. I've only gone to the IMSC conferences. The format is the same each year I've attended. I think it would be fun to see what the other side of the house does for a conference.

I did it full time for a better part of a year while I was laid off. It was stressful because none of it was video. Pays were lower, but there were some nice $50-$250 shops mixed in. I could bring home $3-$5k in a month but it was stressing.

I've been doing it part time like many other folks. I get health insurance through my 9-5 and don't want to give up the value of that. With part time work, consider getting two $50 shops each week. It could mean $200-$250 a month for you. That's a nice chunk of extra spending money if you want an extra couple dinner or movie nights each month. If you pick up $50x4 times per week or one each day after/before work you could bring home $800-$900 a month. That's my current game.

Now, realistically, you're looking at a lot of $10-$25 shops. That's cool too. Grab up $25 a day on work days and it's a cool $125 extra per week or movie+reasonable dinner+couple drinks with your partner or college buddy each week.

Make it work for you and don't get too wrapped up. I separated because I was working 80-100 hour weeks. How is that possible? Welp... 12-16 hour work days every single day. Weekends too...

I think one of the best things with shopping is setting parameters and standards for yourself. Figure out how many shops you're willing to do, what days, and what time constraints before going hard at it.

Tomorrow, I have end of the month shops I grabbed up. Two of them are $35 each, and another is $25+lunch. So, on the way home from work, I'll make $95 extra and food I can split with my hubby.

I flex between full and part time depending on business. I like that I can create my own schedule but the compromise is not always getting the shops or fees when you want it based on availability.

I'm a full time pipeline engineer, but blend mystery shopping and other 1099 contract projects as a part-time thing... I just have a hard time saying 'no' when I see an open 'time slot' in my schedule.

As for the conference, I wanted to attend the recent one in Vegas back in November? But the timing just didn't work out for me. If my schedule allows, I'll try to check out the next one.

Part time. (I had considered full time. Then, I realized that I do not want to do so much of this that I earn a so-called full-time income. Even as a video shopper, I would be obliged to do more of this than I really want to do.) I have several part-time jobs. This suits me. One job has a daily, given, rigid schedule. This provides the structure. The other job and mystery shopping are flexible. I self-schedule. I have the best of both worlds-- for me.

I believe that it would be good for me to attend at least one shopper event. The shopper-oriented event provide an opportunity to network and to learn something. However, I cannot afford to pay someone to do the daily job for the time frame of training a sub, travel, and shopper event. If I were gung-ho to do this full time, I would rearrange my life around a few shopper events.

I started 11 years ago working my tush off, hardly turning anything down. These days I do from 2 to 4 jobs a week, and have improved my lifestyle (most important) as I am retired. Love the restaurants, a few bank and retail, only what I want to do and won't drive, because here in L.a. the city of no bonus, time and freeways are money. I enjoy it, but my advice to anyone thinking of cutting down on a "real" job, think about health Ins. 401 plans and such, which being an Independent Contractor doesn't provide. Great part time gig, but companies do go out of business, lose shops, and it isn't as dependable as a 9/5......just my opinion, several have made a living,
but it involves doing out of the norm places and preparing for your routes, weekends, putting out our money and maybe not having job accepted (doesn't happen often), but doing the work, you want your reimbursement back....not as easy as one would make it sound.

@Tarantado wrote:

I'm a full time pipeline engineer.

My husband was a foreman on a crew for a couple years. It was a great paying gig +per diem... but the company ended up being not so great to work for. He was with Mid-Ohio. The last gig he took, there were some frown-worthy practices happening. Great pay, though. Definitely a way to bring home 6 figures.

I'm a government contractor. In 2016, I was laid off for almost a year and I shopped full time. Now that I'm working steady, I shop part time.

When I shopped full time, I rarely worked weekends. I shopped M-F, 9-2. I did not do many shops that required an outlay of cash.

I do about 50/50 now between part time mystery shopping and another part time job from home.