Shopping has becoming a bigger part of my livlihood but I feel like I'm still struggling at times to earn as much as I would like with flexibility.

What else do you do to earn money?

I tried doing some delivery and gas in my area makes it really not work out financially. I do a lot with bank and credit card hacks to make a chunk of my income. That is mostly opportunistic though and I don't have too much control over when the opportunities come. I really love shopping but I feel like the good and worthwhile jobs can be few and far between. I'm applying to more MSCs to try to find additional opportunities because I really love the flexibility.

Have you considered merchandising? At this time of year, some gigs are recurring over a matter of weeks or months. You might be able to combine shopping and merchandising and build some solid work days.

@Shop-et-al wrote:

Have you considered merchandising? At this time of year, some gigs are recurring over a matter of weeks or months. You might be able to combine shopping and merchandising and build some solid work days.

I have not. Thanks for bringing it up. I'll look into it. If I could multiply my best jobs I'd be really happy doing shopping but I hate not always being able to fill up my week.

olympia,
How many of the nearly 200 legitimate MSCs are you signed up with? One strategy is: on any day when you want a shop/more shops but do not have that, sign up with 5 more MSCs.

Beyond mystery shopping?

I do other work with Mintel as an evaluator for an ongoing project.

I have like 35+ active credit cards and counting as a churner.

I take advantage of any and all 10-20% cash back to convert cash into Amazon gift card using credit card offers to lower our total money out.

I do lots of product research and group studies for high $/hour returns.

I buy and resell certain electronics I’m very familiar with and can return a good $/hour.

I invest…. A LOT. Just a normal routine to paying myself first before anything else.

@Tarantado wrote:

Beyond mystery shopping?

I do other work with Mintel as an evaluator for an ongoing project.

I have like 35+ active credit cards and counting as a churner.

I take advantage of any and all 10-20% cash back to convert cash into Amazon gift card using credit card offers to lower our total money out.

I do lots of product research and group studies for high $/hour returns.

I buy and resell certain electronics I’m very familiar with and can return a good $/hour.

I invest…. A LOT. Just a normal routine to paying myself first before anything else.

This. Most of my money is made from my W-2 job and investing. Even in this market there is money to be made if you stay close and invest in things that go up as well as by investing in the failure of other things.

I use the MS to pay for things such as meals out, shipping from my eBay sales and for the slot machines.

I’m a math and science teacher.

Side hustle: I play blackjack at our little local casinos. I taught myself Basic Strategy and then how to count cards about 10 years ago, and can generally pick up $200-300 a session. I don’t do it too often, but I make $500-600 a month. Have no desire to get any wilder than that.

I also sell handmade pierogis during the holidays.

Oh, and I used to invest in cryptocurrency and made a nice nest egg, but no more since that all crumbled.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/09/2022 09:55PM by ColoKate63.

Mystery shopping is my extra income. For my day job and primary income, I'm an Energy Engineer.

I rent out a basement apartment and a master bedroom suite in my home to long term housemates. We share very few square feet of the total house, so I have both privacy and the security of not living alone. This arrangement is actually my largest single source of income, followed by Social Security.

I was an egg donor in college. Made a nice chunk from doing it six times.

you make pierogies? Any chance you're in the midwest?

@ColoKate63 wrote:

I’m a math and science teacher.

Side hustle: I play blackjack at our little local casinos. I taught myself Basic Strategy and then how to count cards about 10 years ago, and can generally pick up $200-300 a session. I don’t do it too often, but I make $500-600 a month. Have no desire to get any wilder than that.

I also sell handmade pierogis during the holidays.

Oh, and I used to invest in cryptocurrency and made a nice nest egg, but no more since that all crumbled.

Investing mostly, but I don't sit still much. I also have a few rental properties, I am a mobile notary, I sell onlin, I sub, at my kids' schools from time to time, I do food deliveries, and I also take photos for insurance companies. I have been mystery shopping for almost 16 years, but where we live, there are not a TON Of opportunities in this area, so I don't do as much MS as I would like to.

@joanna81 wrote:

you make pierogies? Any chance you're in the midwest?

@ColoKate63 wrote:

I’m a math and science teacher.

Side hustle: I play blackjack at our little local casinos. I taught myself Basic Strategy and then how to count cards about 10 years ago, and can generally pick up $200-300 a session. I don’t do it too often, but I make $500-600 a month. Have no desire to get any wilder than that.

I also sell handmade pierogis during the holidays.

Oh, and I used to invest in cryptocurrency and made a nice nest egg, but no more since that all crumbled.

Or better yet, in Atlanta

How much opportunity is there for a mobile notary?

@sachseshopper wrote:

Investing mostly, but I don't sit still much. I also have a few rental properties, I am a mobile notary, I sell onlin, I sub, at my kids' schools from time to time, I do food deliveries, and I also take photos for insurance companies. I have been mystery shopping for almost 16 years, but where we live, there are not a TON Of opportunities in this area, so I don't do as much MS as I would like to.

Wow, that's quite the hustle. I aspire to be like you one day.

As for myself, another source of my side income is focus groups. Sometimes it pays $75-150 per hour or two. Other times, it involves logging into a website forum (like this one) and answering a few questions. My highest paid focus group was $700 for 2-3 hours of work. Definitely something I love doing!

survey.com (green backround white M in the google app store) has a huge number of contracts. i would stay away from their small items i havent found them well paid. some do. but they do a lot of crew working short term resets and pay pretty well with housing and travel stipends too. they are pretty easy just planogram management. lots of bending and stooping though. when i worked with them, they dont advertise it but they are sometimes flexible with days and hours of the posted work depending on the project. you have to email them though. most run 3 days to 2 weeks. generally 8 hour shifts. i highly recommend those because you are working with people that do it full time and can help with various tips and tricks.

there used to be a job board specifically for mechandising . it was world something or other mostly white with flags. they changed websites though but someone might know the current one

bestmark has large box store resets

i found some merchandising through jobslinger. now would be the time to search because many companies have month to month contracts and the bonuses trend towards the end of the month

craigslist has a gig specific thread. for their jobs section i have found a number of permenant positions 2 weekend petfood sales, two pricing research companies, and of course you can check if there are walmart merchandisers local. the petfood was exceedingly easy and pays well



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/2022 03:28PM by cooldude581.

I retired 3 years ago and knew that I would need multiple streams of income to maintain my lifestyle. I mystery shop occasionally. My bread and butter used to be online sales. The current economy has caused my profits to drop drastically. I do focus groups and clinical research studies when I can. I have a few monthly market research projects that I do. I also do product recalls. For 2023 I plan on reevaluating everything and eliminating what’s not working for me anymore. The key for me is to work smarter not harder.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/2022 06:33PM by Angelbug.

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When I am able to work, I go to my part-time wage job and complete some combination of mystery shops and merchandising gigs. For now, I have enough to do when working on home tasks while in this healing mode. This requires all my energy and ingenuity.

@ShopperGirly wrote:

How much opportunity is there for a mobile notary?

Very much depends on where you live. In Georgia. None. Depends on what you can charge and your state and what you're allowed to notarize.

Some people like Sudshare and Hampr doing laundry for people.

I'm part of the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) group. I keep expenses low, saved for years, engage in DIY tasks, and invest long term. I follow the max 4% withdrawal strategy (Google: "Trinity Study" ). Mystery shops are just a tiny fraction of how I save. Example, I work on my own vehicles and my 2003 truck just passed 300k miles last month. I monitor the S&P500 stock market and believe it's at a near term high as I write this (~4025). Sometime in the 1st qtr of 2023 I expect the S&P500 to fall to 3200-3400 range as a possible buying point. Although I don't believe the markets will gain much in 2023. Note: do your own research. My crystal ball remains cloudy.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2022 01:27PM by maverick1.

I lucked into a legal focus group last year. $450 for my Saturday on Zoom. Still trying to find more like that.