I do this to pretend I'm earning money, and literally for lunch money. I'm in my late 40's retired and don't do shops that aggressively though of course, more lunch money is nice!

My usual bread-butter KIA when it was on, AND usually: The burgers, the mattress, and various self storage shops. Not too much tech or picture stuff - and that suits me fine. My *best* month was I think a net profit of $540 ish and I charge full gas expense, and I charge myself 20 cents per mile as an expense too. Goal is to average $200 profit per month and last year averaged 220.

In October so far I'm at $23.00 which is from (1) Five Guys shop. I wrote a year ago that the pool of shoppers will increase so I'm not surprise but I am surprised how much the fees decreased:

*Burger: 18 is my mini if it's close to me. Was very common to get $25-$35 but in October they seem grabbed for $20 ish.

*Mattress: I put in MAOs for $32 - for locations I've done for $33+ and flat turndown.

*Storage - the exact ones I did for $55 last year, are bumped to $25 today and still not taken.

I don't want to be part of the reason the MSCs can pay less. The petty petulant part of me is tempted to take every darn shop in my neck of the woods for base-pay. Sort of an announcement "whomever is taking them for cheap.....you win. Now, odds are you lose money if you want these shops. I'm good with that, are you? " Hee hee again just mischief in my mind.

Hopefully the fees improve. All I know is if I start taking low fees - fine - but then I have no right to whine about it. Asking myself - do I lower my sights? Or just wait it out.

The silver lining here is that you could work full time at MSing at the current, low fees while still staying at your goal of $200/month. Easily!

(I wish I was joking)

Since you are doing it for lunch money, I would say, since you can afford to, just stand your ground on shops until they reach the number you are used to. October might just have to go in the record books as a bad month. I don't know your market, but you might want to expand the base of companies you are registered with just to see if they offer shops that you might be interested in to expand your base. I think almost everyone here deals with the high and low tide of fees, mostly lower. There are new people that enter the market and drop it not too long after for various reasons. In the meantime, they impact our fees and mess it up for most of us and they probably have no idea that there are higher fees around the corner if you wait.

Instead of capitulating, I would wait it out a little longer and see where fees go from here. There is way too much competition with the dining shops. Although some places have surprisingly offered a fee in recent months when the best you could get is reimbursement. Appreciate the insider info you offered on the KIA shops last year when they were a thing.

I know what you mean. I haven't seen the MF mattress shops over $20 in a year. They weren't even great value at $35. If anyone's out there doing them that cheap I think you deserve better. I'll do burgers at $18 if it's my convenience, $25+ if it's their convenience. That has amounted to 5 in the last 2 months which is above average for me and I expect it won't last.

Bank complaints were a good monthly $60 but I pressed the limits of "I just realized this account existed" and I'm not comfortable with the other scenarios, so I'm giving it time before I open a new account and repeat the pattern. But if I absolutely needed more income, I'd be making short appointments to tell them that their appointments are too short.

Smartphone shops were the last time I had a lucrative day. It seems like 2-3 times a year they boost the pay up to $25-30 for a short time to get the comparison data and then I'll do a route. In the past, car counting and credit card checks have occasionally enabled this kind of route but not at the moment.

And then the shop I do the most is just the local convenience chain shopping their deli. It's only $5, but it's an easy shop and a free meal so I'll grab those whenever convenient. But that's exactly the sort of thing where it makes sense for lunch money, not as an income.

@Amarsir wrote:

I know what you mean. I haven't seen the MF mattress shops over $20 in a year. They weren't even great value at $35. If anyone's out there doing them that cheap I think you deserve better. I'll do burgers at $18 if it's my convenience, $25+ if it's their convenience. That has amounted to 5 in the last 2 months which is above average for me and I expect it won't last.

For some reason, when I saw this thread my mind went straight to MFI. I always connect BabyBooey19 with the gym tour and jewelry shops!

But I miss those mattress shops. I was surprised that the ones in my area are going at $20 now. It was convenient to do in clusters since the parent company back then owned both brands and they were usually located right next to each other. I haven't done any since they got bought by the other brand. Ironically, the other shop through the other brand, while narrative heavy, was the best paying mattress shop on top of a bonus. But super long rotation period.

THANKS for replies everyone and appreciate the kind words momomomo....

Well I got 1 shop lol. A burger shop I did MAO for $25.00 days ago - the MSC of course declined it because their new thing is not countering. Fine - business is business.

Doing same shop for $35.00 today.

Tempted to blend a Storage --- really I am but I did the storage for $38 last time.....today it's $25. I'm gonna void that one.

See how this plays out with the fees in the future.

I'll consider myself lucky as I've been able to stay quite busy doing my (mostly) gas station loops.

Closing out well over 120 shops for October with 10 stops tomorrow, and have another 2 dozen booked for November 1 and 2 to get that month started off right.

i wanna know how you retire in your 40s

My husband did. He worked the same job for 23 years under the state pension system and purchased 4 years to get him to 27 years at age 47.

@cooldude581 wrote:

i wanna know how you retire in your 40s

F.I.R.E.!

I was curious too! If you're doing well, maybe you can supplement with other things like interest and dividends.

Not familiar with the other shops, but for the mattress shops in my area, offers above $25 with MAO or over the phone with the Georgia folks haven't been accepted for maybe over a year now. It's a shop I don't expect to do anymore. If MAO is enabled for nearby locations, I'll enter my desired amount, but leave it at that from there.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/2024 10:00AM by Okie.

@Okie wrote:

I was curious too! If you're doing well, maybe you can supplement

..the rest of us! It's what I thought the next words would be. (PM me for my mailing address to send the check to!) HAHAHA

I was lucky and stupid. School - never my thing ever. Bad notes from teachers, bad grades, never did homework. I graduated high school solely by cheating on finals (man I was good!) and sweet talking one teacher. But I had jobs since I was 12. At 14 Sbarro busboy. Was reading Money and Fortune Magazines at 15 and loved investing, business, sales. To give an idea: Boy Scout meetings. I hated hanging with the kids. Hated it. LOVED talking politics and stock markets with the Dads lol. At 17 I got lucky with a sales job and usually wore a shirt and tie to school. I did that and got promotions and I lived with parents to save money till age 24. Down payment on 1st business at 24. Great team of employees and nucleus of managers. Monetized and sold that company in 2012 - I almost lost it during the economic crash but ended up ok. Company #2 bought cheap. My team from Company #1 followed me there and we turned it around. Sold for a profit after 6 years. NOW the bad news.....Company #1 was on its knees after I left. Like dead duck. I RE-BOUGHT it for 10% of what I sold it for. BUT, this time- many reasons - I failed. I think was too soft. My long term employees were great but they had paid off college tuitions, kids weddings, their spouses had pensions, etc so they got lazy and I didn't move quick enough to fire and hire. Also, while I made good money - my competitors were 10x my size and with the internet - they had economies of scale that I did not. Finally, corporate politics hit. My credit lines were getting tough. SO - sadly - I had to sell----and get out with my butt intact. LUCKILY while I lived well - I lived within my means and saved good money so now, barring something cataclysmic I think I'll be fine. I still fight back tears - it'll be 4 years now. And now my teenage kids will never see me running a nice sized business. It kills me every minute. BUT - I also know I'm very fortunate. No college, no grades, retired in my 40s. Money makes things easier - luxuries are nice - but I never changed who I was so to this day - I love me a good Burger King or diner special and life is ok.

Just did first college tour with DD. Now I want to do more shops LOL!

Re supplementing. Yes, the nest egg from doing well some years + selling my companies is decent. I'm very conservative with it in that my business life and life in general NEEDS to be summarized like in the movie Apollo 13:

"Our mission was considered a successful failure, in that we never made it to the moon - but got home safely"

So still need to give family a good life, kids education, and good seed money for kids later on. Hence my plan:

40% cash - stuff that currently pays 5% (I'm only guy who hates low interest rates! LOL)
30% stocks - yes, I've missed much upside - but I can't afford downside.
20% real estate - townhomes in Millenial Mayberry lol.
10% corporate bonds - 5-7% payers.

Mystery Shopping is lunch money for me. Also down the road it might help me fatten DD's college pocket money.

It's been 4 years of hanging out now - I do love it BUT - ego. I *could* start a new business but 100% of my savings would be risked. IF I make it - I'd make millions. BUT if I fail - I'm done, out, no fallback. So I'm telling myself not t chase generational wealth------ and risk generational poverty. It's a stark choice.

I'm toying with taking a job. EGO hurts in that - I'd be "just an employee" an industry I was a leader in. But time has passed.

I might work for 3-4 years in case DD wants private college versus State. Also DS has a few special needs issues. I think he'll be fine - but a few years of income might let me put away a nicer safety net for him down the road.

Ups and downs! Gotta roll with the changes as REO Speedwagon says.

Thank you for sharing! I enjoy reading this kind of stuff. Hopefully, you won't have to fund your kids' entire college tuition.

If you funded a 529 plan, down the road, maybe look into a 529 plan to Roth IRA rollover for your kids with any unused funds. The ability to rollover went into effect this year. But to qualify, I think you had to hold the 529 for at least 15 years though.

@Okie wrote:

I was curious too! If you're doing well, maybe you can supplement with other things like interest and dividends.

Not familiar with the other shops, but for the mattress shops in my area, offers above $25 with MAO or over the phone with the Georgia folks haven't been accepted for maybe over a year now. It's a shop I don't expect to do anymore. If MAO is enabled for nearby locations, I'll enter my desired amount, but leave it at that from there.

In my market, Mattress gets upto $20 and after that the bonuses and MAOs start. But like other shops I felt they were being picked up for lower fees so I abstained. Will watch a month or two and then reevaluate whether to stop them, or have some nose-cuting-face-spiting fun and just take everything at base fee for awhile lol.

I think I've done $25.00 up to $46.00 on Mattress. I did get a flake Mattress for mid-month for $33. I figured by then- hopefully some other stuff will be in that area so it'll be worth it, otherwise my worst case scenario is a drive for just over break-even

Thanks BB! That was inspiring! I second the NEEDS opinion. There's very little in the commercial world that we really need. And I figure as long as I have the basics, with which I am quite content, and some catastrophe money, I'm good. Even though society tells us otherwise.

@BabyBooey19 wrote:

In my market, Mattress gets upto $20 and after that the bonuses and MAOs start. But like other shops I felt they were being picked up for lower fees so I abstained. Will watch a month or two and then reevaluate whether to stop them, or have some nose-cuting-face-spiting fun and just take everything at base fee for awhile lol.

I think I've done $25.00 up to $46.00 on Mattress. I did get a flake Mattress for mid-month for $33. I figured by then- hopefully some other stuff will be in that area so it'll be worth it, otherwise my worst case scenario is a drive for just over break-even

It might be good to monitor. Also, how it shakes out around their major three-day weekend holiday sales and Black Friday.

I believe these shops now have a rotation period by location. On some occasions, I received a call from a Georgia scheduler. The person I spoke with most often was friendly and did joke around. He said that I could say any amount that I wanted, and he would ask if it would be approved. I was successful one time when multiple locations needed to be shopped.

I believe they usually call past shoppers by location and are aware of the rotation period. But if you ever do get a call, you can bring up the rotation period to help support your amount, and how the amount spent at the location can be variable based on the salesperson. Also, if they mention more than one location that needs to get shopped, you can also support an increased amount for doing multiple shops.