What other ways do you try to make an income besides Mystery Shopping?

I'm looking into blood donations and plasma donations. Has anyone tried these. December and January mystery shopping has dropped to almost nothing. I'm in So Calif and surprised by how little is out there. I've been doing mystery shopping for 10 years now. I'm 71 and it seems to be getting harder.

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In addition to mystery shopping, I had 2 or more W2 jobs until I retired a year ago. I currently have one part time W2 job. We are blessed with pensions and retirement investments.

I participate in studies with a market research company. These are mostly snack food taste tests.

I am also a swimsuit model. Okay, I made that up to see if anyone is paying attention.

Jeff

My husband works at a grocery store part time and we take advantage of the discounts. I coupon shop and use Ibotta for cash back.

I do credit card SUBs (sign-up bonuses) and checking and savings account sign-up bonuses. The credit cards are really easy to hit the spend targets when used for MS expenses. example: Chase Business Ink and Chase Business Cash cards. The checking and savings usually require direct deposits and sometimes minimum balances but can be very profitable if you have a little money to play with. I also do focus groups whenever I can find one.

I run an OnlyFans account where I tell erotic stories about my mystery shopping experiences, including the time a middle-aged c-store clerk named Jolene, who had a light mustache and a batman tattoo on her right arm, winked after telling me she owed me sixty-nine cents.

We some poor folks out here. We gotta do what we gotta do.

Okay, 99% of that story is not true. I wonder what is the 1% that is true?

I have done maybe a couple dozen mystery shops since last spring. Mostly what I do now are phone shops, maybe 4 a month. They are ones where I can pull about $200 extra month and they are worth my time. My primary income today is reselling. Changing directions was the best decision I could have made. It will take another year or two to get where I want to be, but I am well on my way and could not be happier.

I'm a freelance feature writer for a major daily newspaper and the website of our local NPR station, but I usually just do a few stories a month. I also work two days a week for a friend who has a very small business. I could do all the work remotely but she likes having someone to bounce ideas off, so I go to her office once a week and work remotely another few hours a week.

@ServiceAward
The 1% I'll believe is someone, somewhere winked at you. lol

There is less to do and it pays less.

I'm a substitute teacher. I enjoy that enough to keep doing it. Surely, they'll stop calling soon. I'm 70.

Stock market and dividends

I have Social Security. Before 2020 I was making between $1000 and $1500 a month mystery shopping. These days I'm lucky to make $500 a month. At 71, it's harder to find work,.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2025 06:57AM by johnb974.

Well you could always donate your body to science by being a human lab rat. I’m currently looking at it myself as I don’t have any real skills… I was always a stay at home mom but now that my kids are grown, I don’t have the patience to raise any of these little gentle parented brats.

@prince wrote:

@ServiceAward
The 1% I'll believe is someone, somewhere winked at you. lol

There is less to do and it pays less.

I'm a substitute teacher. I enjoy that enough to keep doing it. Surely, they'll stop calling soon. I'm 70.

I'm guessing it's the Batman tatoo.

@ServiceAward wrote:

I run an OnlyFans account where I tell erotic stories about my mystery shopping experiences, including the time a middle-aged c-store clerk named Jolene, who had a light mustache and a batman tattoo on her right arm, winked after telling me she owed me sixty-nine cents.

We some poor folks out here. We gotta do what we gotta do.

Okay, 99% of that story is not true. I wonder what is the 1% that is true?

I have done maybe a couple dozen mystery shops since last spring. Mostly what I do now are phone shops, maybe 4 a month. They are ones where I can pull about $200 extra month and they are worth my time. My primary income today is reselling. Changing directions was the best decision I could have made. It will take another year or two to get where I want to be, but I am well on my way and could not be happier.

Oh, ServiceAward...please share the names of the OnlyFans accounts you subscribe to...inquiring minds want to know

@AZwolfman wrote:

Stock market and dividends

"Clap for the Wolfman"...according to my spreadsheets, I've been earning on average about 10% per year for many years in the market. It allowed us to retire early from our W2 careers. ["FIRE" for those who know the acronym.] We're now well under the Trinity Study 4% withdraw strategy.

Bottom line: have a financial plan and patience...execute the plan for decades.

The true part was Jolene.

@johnb974 wrote:

I'm looking into blood donations and plasma donations. Has anyone tried these. December and January mystery shopping has dropped to almost nothing. I'm in So Calif and surprised by how little is out there. I've been doing mystery shopping for 10 years now. I'm 71 and it seems to be getting harder.

Yes, shops are getting harder & harder to find. I'm glad to know it's not only me.

Take advantage of the sign up bonuses for the sports books. Fanduel and Draftkings both have great offers. Something like $150 in bonus bets after making a $5 bet. Use the bonus bets to make some reasonable bets and you should be able to pocket a little bit of cash. Or have fun and swing for the fences with some long odds! Just delete the app after you use your free bets so you aren't tempted to keep going, lol.

I have really thought about selling feet pics to people with foot fetishes but it really is harder than you think! Maybe that will be my retirement gig. I wonder if people will be interested in slightly more wrinkled feet!

The S&P 500 has returned an average of 11% over the past decade. Source: [www.investors.com]
Throw your spare change into a broad index fund....so you can make $ while you sleep.
Those side hustle blogs and forums often have some good suggestions....beer money on reddit for example.
I'm mostly in the bonus/promotions/points game...watching both sides of the equation....
to be fair though, I see things tightening... unless you want to sling burgers or coffee, plenty of those jobs it appears.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2025 02:28PM by BarefootBliss.

The challenge with those feet pics gigs, phone chat, feti$hes, etc....isn't just the effort involved, it's the marketing, they require quite a bit of that...there's a lot of competition out there and just like MSing, so many willing to sell very low...if you find a niche that doesn't require a tremendous amount of marketing, please let the rest of us know LOL.

@johnb974 I always thought there was a small chance that you could have been yanking our chain about having a self-employment tax requirement. But sorry to hear.

I really enjoy finding out a little bit about everyone I've been reading about for years. I'm 38

I figured BarefootBliss as the foot model...here it is Datagirl.

Until 2 years ago mystery shopping was my only source of income. My son does doordash, and mystery shops too. We've been pooling our resources here for 9 years. Now I get retirement social security, and I still mystery shop, so I have it a little easier.

<<<I figured BarefootBliss as the foot model...here it is Datagirl.>>>

I didn't say I couldn't/wouldn't LOL.... it's just the market has fallen too far in exchange for my efforts lo.

it's great whenever we can lighten up here in this forum.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2025 02:34PM by BarefootBliss.

There is the IPSOS Say app that allows one to complete surveys for gift cards.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2025 02:52PM by gigishopper.

There are many freelance type things that aren't strictly MSing, but are probably in the same basic genre.
Merchandising. Many IC jobs out there, and reset crews are always hiring where you are a W2 employee.
Facility audits. All the gas station audits really aren't MSing, although a small component is.
Product recalls/retrievals. Sign up with RQA and Sedgwick.
Focus groups. When you can find them.
Photo/shelf/product audits. Some decent jobs out there on Field Agent, Observa, ProxyPics, iVueit, etc
Delivery. Roadie, Spark, Instacart, Shipt, Doordash, UberEats, and many others

I used to do a lot of MS jobs, but not anymore. I made 2K/month on average in 2024. I did a total of 10 MS jobs, all were post office shops before the new company assumed the contract. Most of the jobs that I did fit within the list above.

I did egg donation during college. I made thousands over the course of a few years. Since then, I have aged out of the program, but I have heard it is now up to 5 or 6 thousand. If you are a woman in your 20's look into it. From a veteran, keep in mind it is very time consuming and involved, but could be a lucrative money maker for the right young lady. If anyone wants more details, I don't mind sharing my experience.

I started Mystery Shopping when my unemployment payments ran out after 6 months trying to find new employment after a surprise layoff. Fortunately I found an "in-between" part time job to get some benefits and pay some bills along with Mystery shopping for some supplement. Now I am a full-time digital product manager at a small company near my home. I took a pay cut when I accepted the job because the benefits were stable, the income was stable hours and I could do mystery shops on the weekend. Mystery shops help fill some gaps while I still live check to check, but once the raise comes and I can maintain life with the full-time job, I plan to scale back on the mystery shopping and make it my "fun money" work.

so I need to provide them my current ID?

Shopping Eastern Pennsylvania since 2009

Delivery. Roadie, Spark, Instacart, Shipt, Doordash, UberEats, and many others...for such you need to have not to old car.

Shopping Eastern Pennsylvania since 2009

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What other ways do you try to make an income besides Mystery Shopping?

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