Oooh... good question @Tarantado
I live in CA and routinely go over the reimbursement amount just buying 2 gallons of the cheapest gas (since it's up to $3.64/gallon at my house as of yesterday. Eeesh.)

Since I'm required by the shop guidelines to buy at least two gallons, does that make a difference? What about the restaurant shops I've seen people complain about where you have to accept an upsell that takes you over the max reimbursement?

@SteveSoCal wrote:

I'm going to assume that number includes time at the hotel/resort. When I can, if I'm just doing a single hotel, I don't work when I'm there at all (except for taking notes, performing the required tasks, etc.). I do all of the writing and reporting after departure to separate the payoff from the work.

My reports generally take between 10-25 hours for a hotel, which includes taking food breaks. If I'm getting a few thousand dollars of value back for the stay, that's worth it to me.

My working time is quite similar to yours, though I have been lucky to have been able to do more assignments that tend toward the low end of that range (more integrity focused or restaurant only with accomodations thrown in as a bonus).

My habit is to typically spend several hours reporting at the end of each evening and finalize the report the day I check out, but I may have to try your approach one of these times. Would sure enhance the enjoyment of the experience if I could trust my note-taking and memory to be good 2 or 3 days after checkin.

I'm not an accountant, but as I understand it; The reimbursement is reimbursement so it doesn't count as income. The $10 fee is your reported income and from that you deduct the other $2 as a required expense, plus potentially your milage in performing the assignment. It's a sticky area with gas shops because the milage should include the cost of gas, however....

@CaliGirl925; To make an expense official, it has to be required, and not reimbursed. As in the example above. If a $5 purchase is required and you are given $3 in reimbursement, then you have a $2 expense you can deduct. The $3 purchase and reimbursement is a wash.

Thanks @SteveSoCal! You explained that very well. Are you sure you're not an accountant?

@saacman5033 wrote:

Would sure enhance the enjoyment of the experience if I could trust my note-taking and memory to be good 2 or 3 days after checkin.

They key is in note taking and knowing the standards you are reporting on, I think. I have developed a really good shorthand for notes that go in my phone and know exactly what I have to be looking for, so I just make sure to note expecting details for every negative component.

@CaliGirl925 wrote:

Are you sure you're not an accountant?

Well....there are some accounting components to my main job

And you're welcome.

And best wishes to everyone who is finding the way to make mystery shopping work for them. It's an ongoing process for most of us. It has changed a lot over time for me, and really enhanced my life. Even if I don't hit my $35k in reimbursements for this year, it's still been an awesome ride!

you can not "cancel out" so-called "overages" with your fees to result in less income. On the Schedule C therre is a place for revenue (think of that as the fees you receive for performing a shop). There is another place for Expenses. Expenses are costs which are mandatory. You are required to buy $6 of gas and get a full reimbursement at $3 per gallon or $6, plus a $5 fee for performing the shop. IMHO, the best way to treat this case is to enter $11 as Revenue and $6 as Expenses. Of course, you can deduct mileage associate with the shop, and that eventually gets deducted as an expense at $0.575 per mile.

Now, let assume that you buy 4 gallons of gas. Only 2 gallons is an expense. The other 2 gallons never appears on your income tax except indirectly as part of the mileage deduction.

Now, let assume that you are REQUIRED to go into the convenience store and make a purchase for $1 and get a receipt. The MSC says that they will not reimburse the $1. The $1 is entered on your Income Tax as an expense because it was a required business expense.

Now a "gray" area. You are REQUIRED to go into the convenience store and make a purchase for $1 and get a receipt. The MSC says that they WILL reimburse the $1. You look around, and the least expensive items cost $1.19. The $1 is entered on your Income Tax as an expense because it was a required business expense, and the $1 reimbursement is entered as revenue. The gray area is the left-over $0.19 and dealing with that depends upon your ability to convince the IRS that it was a required business expenses if you get audited. Your ability to convince the IRS that there were no items available at less cost (regardless of their attractiveness to you) diminishes as the amount of money you spend goes up. I would not want to try to justify a $5 purchase. I am willing to try to justify my excess $0.19 on the $1.19 purchase.

To address your question directly,
" I get two gallons of premium gas (required for my vehicle) and end up being $2 over the reimbursement limit, say the shop fee was $10. Would it be reasonable to say my reportable income for this shop would be $8?"
I hope you now understand that the answer is no. IF they say that they will reimburse you for up to 2 gallons of gas up to a limit of $6 and you were only able to buy 1.75 gallons of gas (because you bought the premium grade), then no one forced you to buy more than 1.75 gallons of gas. Any of the extra gas that you bought and which was used doing mystery shopping will eventually be included in the $0.575 per mile rate.

If you had huge amounts of reimbursed gasoline, then the IRS might allege that you are not entitled to the full $0.575 per mile because you never paid for gas, but I doubt that anyone gets reimbursed for enough gas (compared to the total amount purchased in a year) to raise this issue.

@Tarantado wrote:

@CaliGirl925 wrote:

Thanks @SteveSoCal and @bgriffin!
I'm surprised to learn that only reimbursed expenses can be considered an "official expense". I guess I'll take a closer look (pun unintended) at the reimbursement amounts to make sure I only take ones where I'm sure I'll be fully reimbursed, or where the reimbursement amount is generous enough to make any overage worth not being able to claim it.

Great info, thanks again!

Forgive my ignorance as I'll get clarification from my accountant on this later, but is it 'wrong' to cancel out my reasonable overage from the reimbursement with the shop fee, then count the 'net' shop fee as how much I made on the shop?

In other words, I get two gallons of premium gas (required for my vehicle) and end up being $2 over the reimbursement limit, say the shop fee was $10. Would it be reasonable to say my reportable income for this shop would be $8?

I think in CaliGirl's case she is required to purchase 2 gallons of gas and only $6 of that is reimbursed. if that's the case and it costs $8 then in a round about way she is correct. She should show $16 in income ($6 gas reimbursement + $10 shop fee), $6 in reimbursed expenses, and $2 in non-reimbursed required expenses. Now, if she were to purchase $20 worth of gas, she should still only report the above on her taxes.

In the added case of the convenience store purchase. Let's say they require a purchase that is not reimbursed. The cheapest thing in a convenience store is most likely a $.10 mint or piece of gum. I'm sorry but I am not buying that. I'm buying something that I actually want. If I buy a Monster for $2.50 then I will claim a $2.50 non-reimbursed required expense. I don't know if that will pass an audit or not, but honestly I'm not so worried about it. Are they going to send someone around to every convenience store I've ever audited to find the cheapest item? Likewise if there is a required purchase that only reimburses so much I still do the same if I go over. I am not recommending this for others as it is quite possibly not a legal way to report income for tax purposes.

@myst4au wrote:

you can not "cancel out" so-called "overages" with your fees to result in less income. On the Schedule C therre is a place for revenue (think of that as the fees you receive for performing a shop). There is another place for Expenses. Expenses are costs which are mandatory. You are required to buy $6 of gas and get a full reimbursement at $3 per gallon or $6, plus a $5 fee for performing the shop. IMHO, the best way to treat this case is to enter $11 as Revenue and $6 as Expenses. Of course, you can deduct mileage associate with the shop, and that eventually gets deducted as an expense at $0.575 per mile.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but It's my understanding that if you are directly reimbursed for an expense, there is no need to report that as revenue & expense on the schedule C. That is why it's standard practice not to included expenses on 1099's sent out to shoppers. They do, in effect, cancel each other out in that case.

Items that I would consider to be Expenses in that case are required purchases that are not directly reimbursed (Such as the additional gas), so that would be deducted from the shop fees/revenue that you took in.

I include reimbursements as income on my taxes and then include the corresponding expense as an expense. It works out the same, and makes it easier to me.

Let's say in have $10,000 in fees and $10,000 in reimbursed expenses and no other business expense at all. You can account for $20,000 in income and $10,000 in expenses and come up with $10,000 taxable. Or you can just say you got $10,000 in fees, disregard the reimbursed expenses totally, and come up with $10,000 taxable. The problem with that is in case of an audit, and if you use a business checking account like I do, the IRS would want to know why you deposited $20,000 into your account but only reported $10,000. Yes, you can prove why, just is something extra you have to do. Plus in my case I keep up with what is owed and paid. So if XYZ owes me $100 in fees and $100 in reimbursements, my spreadsheet shows them as owing me $200. If I don't include all of it I have to separate all of that out and then manually go back and look to make sure the reimbursement amount is correct. To me it just seems easier to lump it all together.

@myst4au wrote:

you can not "cancel out" so-called "overages" with your fees to result in less income. On the Schedule C therre is a place for revenue (think of that as the fees you receive for performing a shop). There is another place for Expenses. Expenses are costs which are mandatory. You are required to buy $6 of gas and get a full reimbursement at $3 per gallon or $6, plus a $5 fee for performing the shop. IMHO, the best way to treat this case is to enter $11 as Revenue and $6 as Expenses. Of course, you can deduct mileage associate with the shop, and that eventually gets deducted as an expense at $0.575 per mile.

Now, let assume that you buy 4 gallons of gas. Only 2 gallons is an expense. The other 2 gallons never appears on your income tax except indirectly as part of the mileage deduction.

Now, let assume that you are REQUIRED to go into the convenience store and make a purchase for $1 and get a receipt. The MSC says that they will not reimburse the $1. The $1 is entered on your Income Tax as an expense because it was a required business expense.

Now a "gray" area. You are REQUIRED to go into the convenience store and make a purchase for $1 and get a receipt. The MSC says that they WILL reimburse the $1. You look around, and the least expensive items cost $1.19. The $1 is entered on your Income Tax as an expense because it was a required business expense, and the $1 reimbursement is entered as revenue. The gray area is the left-over $0.19 and dealing with that depends upon your ability to convince the IRS that it was a required business expenses if you get audited. Your ability to convince the IRS that there were no items available at less cost (regardless of their attractiveness to you) diminishes as the amount of money you spend goes up. I would not want to try to justify a $5 purchase. I am willing to try to justify my excess $0.19 on the $1.19 purchase.

To address your question directly,
" I get two gallons of premium gas (required for my vehicle) and end up being $2 over the reimbursement limit, say the shop fee was $10. Would it be reasonable to say my reportable income for this shop would be $8?"
I hope you now understand that the answer is no. IF they say that they will reimburse you for up to 2 gallons of gas up to a limit of $6 and you were only able to buy 1.75 gallons of gas (because you bought the premium grade), then no one forced you to buy more than 1.75 gallons of gas. Any of the extra gas that you bought and which was used doing mystery shopping will eventually be included in the $0.575 per mile rate.

If you had huge amounts of reimbursed gasoline, then the IRS might allege that you are not entitled to the full $0.575 per mile because you never paid for gas, but I doubt that anyone gets reimbursed for enough gas (compared to the total amount purchased in a year) to raise this issue.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

I'm not an accountant, but as I understand it; The reimbursement is reimbursement so it doesn't count as income. The $10 fee is your reported income and from that you deduct the other $2 as a required expense, plus potentially your milage in performing the assignment. It's a sticky area with gas shops because the milage should include the cost of gas, however....

@CaliGirl925; To make an expense official, it has to be required, and not reimbursed. As in the example above. If a $5 purchase is required and you are given $3 in reimbursement, then you have a $2 expense you can deduct. The $3 purchase and reimbursement is a wash.

I feel like I read two conflicting views....

Schedule C first you put your gross receipts including reimbursements and you deduct on the form your reimbursed expenses. You keep a record of the shop guidelines that showed the purchase requirement. Audits are based on common sense. If your auditor knows the convenience store sells things for fifty cents and you were required in writing to buy the cheapest thing then fifty cebts will be allowed. if you are required to pick something in a price range then there is no problem. Enjoy the Monster Drink.

There is no grey area about nineteen cents.

It looks like this:

Gross Revenues Is the income received.
Then there are categories of deductions. I would make one that goes in one of the blank lines where they let you write categories. "Required Purchases" and whether reimbursed or not that gets added all up and put on the line.
Subtract the required purchases from gross revenues as you do with your internet, computer, printing, and auto expenses, and at the end of Schedule C is the number you report as income on the 1040. This is also the number you use on schedule SE.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2015 03:40AM by SR802.

Deleted

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

One of the biggest benefits is never talked about in terms of pay. That benefit is freedom. I get to work as much or as little as I want. I get to say no to jobs I don't want to do for any amount of money. Or jobs that I don't think pay me enough. I'm the final say in what I do in any given day.

Priceless.

I schedule shops around the ~12 yoga classes I teach each week and the cleaning contract I have with one of the studios. Since I have big blocks of time on Tuesdays and Fridays, some weeks I take on a lot of bonused, one day travel work those days; some weeks I feel like I need a break and do only a handful of shops all week.

For me onsite visit, report, and travel time are all factored and I have a minimum $ per hour figure that I meed to make it worthwhile. I have been shopping since reports had to be faxed/snail mailed; I shopped as a SAHM, as a gym owner/personal trainer, as a director for a large, medically-based fitness center, and now as a "mostly" yoga teacher. If you are willing to put in the work and to be reliable, after a while, you determine what works for you and you gain a reputation with the schedulers that makes you the "go to" person for certain things.

I do sometimes take lower paying shops like grocery stores because I have to go there anyway and I might as well get paid but I do very few reimbursement only shops because I do use my MSing $ to pay the bills.

This whole thread is much ado about a tragedy we call the income tax. It is so complicated there is no solution or agreement on the many practices to prepare reporting of income.

It may be better to live a life of crime. Criminals can not report their income because to do so would violate their 5th amendment rights to be protected from self incrimination. You can unintentionally become a criminal if you let a person who took a short course in tax preparation prepare your taxes. They professed to know and were capable of applying all applicable 10,000 plus amendments to the tax code after only a few short hours of learning how to prepare your taxes. You are responsible when you sign the form even though you admitted you have no idea what you are doing. If you knew what you were doing you would have prepared the tax forms yourself.

You could not call the IRS for help. Many citizens were unable to get through to those who could help because the IRS was underfunded.

There is a simple solution. The states have used it for decades. They tax income when it is spent. The federal government has rarely been known to make things simple. The states allow a taxpayer to go to the store and spend their money. When they do the merchant figures the tax and it appears on the sales slip. No questions asked about how the income was acquired or how many dependents you have or if you are a legal alien or citizen, you pay the tax or the sale is not made. Even if you have a political agenda about how that money is spent the merchant will charge you the tax.

It does not matter what you do. I was randomly audited. It cost a lot of time and money to prepare for the audit. The IRS gave me a refund because if it is ambiguous I do not take the deduction. It is cheaper and less stressful if you just lose the deduction. The IRS does not apologize and does not pay the cost of preparing for the audit. It cost me more than the amount they refunded therefore I was penalized without cause. The IRS will still have a job auditing businesses who collect the sales tax and their suppliers for checks and balances.

@SR802 wrote:

Schedule C first you put your gross receipts including reimbursements and you deduct on the form your reimbursed expenses.

Everyone has to make their own decision about how to handle reporting of their income for tax purposes, but there is pretty clear language in the tax code that says if you are reimbursed under an "Accountable plan" (i.e. directly reimbursed for required expenses in exchange for providing a receipt), the employer should not report those amounts as income and you should not attempt to claim a deduction for it. I think it's pretty safe to assume that's why the MSCs don't include the reimbursements in the tax forms they send out.

If gets more messy when you have overages, or combines fees & reimbursements, and I can see a case for combining all of it when you have a $15 paid to you with potentially $5-10 profit, but in my case, I'm receiving over $30k annually in reimbursements and receiving only a small fraction of that as taxable income. It doesn't make sense for me to include all reimbursements as income and then deduct all of it back out.

I apologise I am backtracking a bit on this post, but my response to the op, is I am uk based and that has its advantages and disadvantages compared to USA - we don't have as many companies but we are closer knit mileage wise, I am Yorkshire so have access to a lot of towns fairly easy, MS is not as big uk as it is USA, I mix my assignments some for me - supermarkets etc so not expecting pay, just free goods which is still pay in a round about way, then I do strict cash ones. I keep a spreadsheet and minus my just me stuff and outlay petrol etc. I have done it 5yrs or so on and off but more recently full time, I am making £250 plus a week clear of expenses, I do a lot of hours and I spend time on my reports, can you make money yes you can, but it really depends on where you live and what you are prepared to do for your business. So I agree with all the other comments its not a straight yes or no, and you need to be good, not just at Ms but writing the reports, getting to know the companies, its hard work, its marketed as get paid to shop but the reality is its not easy money if you want to do it long term just my own thoughts

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@SR802 wrote:

Schedule C first you put your gross receipts including reimbursements and you deduct on the form your reimbursed expenses.

Everyone has to make their own decision about how to handle reporting of their income for tax purposes, but there is pretty clear language in the tax code that says if you are reimbursed under an "Accountable plan" (i.e. directly reimbursed for required expenses in exchange for providing a receipt), the employer should not report those amounts as income and you should not attempt to claim a deduction for it. I think it's pretty safe to assume that's why the MSCs don't include the reimbursements in the tax forms they send out.

If gets more messy when you have overages, or combines fees & reimbursements, and I can see a case for combining all of it when you have a $15 paid to you with potentially $5-10 profit, but in my case, I'm receiving over $30k annually in reimbursements and receiving only a small fraction of that as taxable income. It doesn't make sense for me to include all reimbursements as income and then deduct all of it back out.

--------------------------------------------
The Accountable Plan does not apply to us, independent contractors. An accountable plan is an employee reimbursement allowance arrangement or a method for reimbursing employees for business travel expenses that complies with IRS regulations.

I would list all income and all expenses in schedule C.

Contact Debbie Wessel at The Shadow Agency for video shops in your area.

Wow, that was random.

I've shopped for seven years now. Most years, I shop about $10,000, of which $4,000 is reimbursements. Of the remaining $6,000, by the time I deduct mileage and office, I make about $2500 a year. It's a good supplemental job, but not a good livelihood in my part of the woods.

I work in a tax office.... you don't report the reimbursed items as someone previously stated. These items are a required purchases to be able to complete the assigned work as an independent contractor. They are not to be expensed. However, if you lose money on a shop because you have to purchase more than the reimbursement, you can claim that amount on a 2106, but it really isn't worth the effort...

[www.irs.gov]

The determination on whether one is an independent contractor, i.e. a business, or working as a hobby depends on the answer to a question.... why do you work as a mystery shopper.

[www.irs.gov]

For a mystery shopper, if your intention is to operate your business so as to make a profit, and you work on a regular basis with the income contributing to your support, you are safe to continue to say it is a business. If you are a mystery shopper for the fun of it, for the entertainment aspect, and nothing in your paperwork indicates you are working to make an increase in profit over the years, then you are doing this as a hobby.

Whoa a few errors, sorry. The title says it. Unreimbursed Employee Expenses is a 2106. We are not employees and this form does not apply to Independ. Contractors. If you work in a tax office you can ask one of the preparers. They can help you.

The hobby rule is in Section 183 of the Internal Revenue Code. It states that if you can prove a profit motive then it is a business. Many hobbies are actually businesses when the hobbies generate income.

The employee-employer relationship is something between the IRS and the companies. We do not need to be questioning that in my opinion and if we get a 1099 and wanted it to be a W2 then we should have asked why taxes are not taken from our pay. When we get a 1099 we can assume that, and use our records to verify that, reimbursements are included. They are, because they are required to be. All monies paid to us are on the 1099 when issued, when required.

Schedule C
Schedule SE
Form 4562 Depreciation and Amortization
All good stuff.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2015 10:25AM by SR802.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@SR802 wrote:

Schedule C first you put your gross receipts including reimbursements and you deduct on the form your reimbursed expenses.

Everyone has to make their own decision about how to handle reporting of their income for tax purposes, but there is pretty clear language in the tax code that says if you are reimbursed under an "Accountable plan" (i.e. directly reimbursed for required expenses in exchange for providing a receipt), the employer should not report those amounts as income and you should not attempt to claim a deduction for it. I think it's pretty safe to assume that's why the MSCs don't include the reimbursements in the tax forms they send out.

If gets more messy when you have overages, or combines fees & reimbursements, and I can see a case for combining all of it when you have a $15 paid to you with potentially $5-10 profit, but in my case, I'm receiving over $30k annually in reimbursements and receiving only a small fraction of that as taxable income. It doesn't make sense for me to include all reimbursements as income and then deduct all of it back out.

So, you do not write off your car, your internet, your mobile phone, your computer??

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2015 10:55AM by SR802.

@Piled Hip Deep, PHD wrote:

This whole thread is much ado about a tragedy we call the income tax. It is so complicated there is no solution or agreement on the many practices to prepare reporting of income.

It may be better to live a life of crime. Criminals can not report their income because to do so would violate their 5th amendment rights to be protected from self incrimination. You can unintentionally become a criminal if you let a person who took a short course in tax preparation prepare your taxes. They professed to know and were capable of applying all applicable 10,000 plus amendments to the tax code after only a few short hours of learning how to prepare your taxes. You are responsible when you sign the form even though you admitted you have no idea what you are doing. If you knew what you were doing you would have prepared the tax forms yourself.

You could not call the IRS for help. Many citizens were unable to get through to those who could help because the IRS was underfunded.

There is a simple solution. The states have used it for decades. They tax income when it is spent. The federal government has rarely been known to make things simple. The states allow a taxpayer to go to the store and spend their money. When they do the merchant figures the tax and it appears on the sales slip. No questions asked about how the income was acquired or how many dependents you have or if you are a legal alien or citizen, you pay the tax or the sale is not made. Even if you have a political agenda about how that money is spent the merchant will charge you the tax.

It does not matter what you do. I was randomly audited. It cost a lot of time and money to prepare for the audit. The IRS gave me a refund because if it is ambiguous I do not take the deduction. It is cheaper and less stressful if you just lose the deduction. The IRS does not apologize and does not pay the cost of preparing for the audit. It cost me more than the amount they refunded therefore I was penalized without cause. The IRS will still have a job auditing businesses who collect the sales tax and their suppliers for checks and balances.

Random audit, what a hassle. I am sorry to hear you had such a tough time. I truly understand what you are saying but it isn't all that bad if you learned more about it. As for the IRS being underfunded, that is better than being overfunded. The IRS is an arm of the Treasury Department and in addition to being a worker bee of Congressional Legislation they also have their own Court. The beauty of having an education about tax is that you get to learn the clarity. And if you disagree, you can go to US Tax Court.

Take your deductions. They are good for you.

Shouldn't all the tax talk be in its own thread?

You know how these threads go, Sybil...and this is at least partly related to earnings as a shopper.

@SR802 wrote:

So, you do not write off your car, your internet, your mobile phone, your computer??

I'm not implying that shoppers should not take deductions. I'm saying that it's my understanding that if I turn in a receipt for a required purchase and am directly reimbursed for it, I do not have to report that reimbursement as income if I do not utilize the purchase as a deduction

Why do you think that virtually all MSCs do not report accountable reimbursements as taxable income?

In the instructions instruction for 1099's, you will find the following information for one item that should be reported on it: "A fee paid to a nonemployee, including an independent contractor, or travel reimbursement for which the non employee did not account to the payer, if the fee and reimbursement total at least $600"

Isn't that pretty clear instruction from the IRS that "accountable" reimbursements need not be reported as income and then deducted back off from a schedule C?

It will not be the same for all shoppers, but in my case, around 95% of my reimbursements are travel related, and are directly accounted for. I do not wish this upon anyone, but if the IRS does chose to take a look at your accounting, I'm guessing that they may be relieved at the simplicity of the process if they are just having to examine the taxable fees paid to you and the allowable deductions you took against those. I went through it due to a clerical error on my part and the only issue was a fee that did not get reported, due to a misplaced 1099. They took no issue with the reimbursements not being claimed.

But for forum members looking for tax information, they might go right by this thread.

I don't think that forum members needing tax advice should be taking it from something they read on a forum by an anonymous person, though.

This discussion has headed toward the different approaches shoppers are taking with tax reporting and as you can see, there are differing views. Each person should consult a tax professional to determine the best approach for their particular situation if they have questions.

How much do I make? There are all sorts of "rewards". I am comfortably retired but I take Mystery shopping seriously because I relied on feed back when I was building my businesses and now I am paying forward for the feed back. If I go to a restaurant or food shopping I am going there anyway, I consider it a discount. If I am driving down the road and I see an accident I always stop. I was on an first aid squad years ago. I would wonder the rest of my life if I could have made a difference if I did not stop. Helping people gives me rewards. I lost count of the miles I have driven in the past 6 years and how many people I have aided. Was it coincidence? I hear people (praying?) "Help me God" and I believe I am put there to help them. They say "Thank you for saving my life." I tell them to make it a life worth saving. Go to a first aid squad and volunteer. Someday I may benefit from that. If it is not fun, I am not going to do it! I do not have to, I am an independent contractor. Helping people is fun!

2-2.5K on average per month so far this year. I'm happy with it. Looking forward to branching out in Europe later in the year. It took awhile to get the ins and outs (I'm sure there is still plenty for me to learn as well).