Looking Forward to a Week of Savings
This is a week where we have the opportunity to save a lot of money, but still enjoy going out. Today we went out to Olive Garden for a Valentine’s lunch, where we spent just $4 on our food—the rest was covered by a gift card from Christmas. Then we went to a free movie using tickets I had one in an instant win game. That was followed by a trip to the mall where we got two shirts for my sister at Aeropostale where we had to do a mystery shop. We spent $18.51, and $14 will be reimbursed, so $4.51 for two shirts from my sister’s favorite store is a great deal. This will be her birthday present later in the year.
We have a supper out planned tomorrow for another mystery shop. We should be able to keep all of our food within the amount they will reimburse us for. At most we might have to spend a dollar or two on the tip, and that’s money I’m willing to pay for an otherwise free meal I don’t have to cook or clean up after!
For the rest of the week, meals are planned that should be easy enough to make, even after a long day at work. This should help us stay on track to spending $50 or less on food for the rest of the month, though we have been pretty good about eating at home so far this month. In January that was a struggle, but as we see our debt coming down, I think we’re becoming more committed staying in to save money to pay off our debts and then start saving for a down payment on a house and maxing out our Roth IRAs.
Mystery Shopping
Money Monday
A month or so ago, Lindsey and I were thinking of ways to make some money. One the ways she had me look into Mystery Shopping. At first I was skeptical and thought of those ads that said “you can make $75 a day as a mystery shopper,” I had always thought those ads sounded too good to be true and that no one really made money off of actual mystery shopping, but rather off of referrals… like a mystery shopping pyramid scheme.
Although I was skeptical, my concerns were somewhat put to ease when Lindsey sent me a link of someone evaluating mystery shopping services. I took one day out of a weekend and signed up with a few websites. I get a few emails a week from each of these websites, but had not done any assignments until one service actually called me. The worker on the other side of the line seemed really friendly and in need of someone to do a mystery shopping assignment. This mystery shopping assignment was for a dinner at Applebees. Because the only thing I like more than food is free food, I decided to take the assignment.
The way that mystery shopping works is you go to a restaurant – or other business, gas station, K-Mart, Lowes, etc. – observe what the assignment asks you to observe and then report on your observations. At Applebees I was supposed to observe how the bartender/server at the bar dealt with customers and how long certain aspects of the ordering and serving process took. Because this assignment involved a lot of different steps and questions, I found it very helpful to have my iPhone with me with the questions and steps near me to help keep time and fill out the survey when the server wasn’t close. For other assignments, you might be better off printing off the instructions and keeping them with you or turning the instructions into a shopping list to not make it noticeable that you are a mystery shopper.
In terms of payment, the company you are working with will tell you how much they are willing to reimburse you for as well as any additional compensation. The Applebees assignment was a reimbursement of a meal up to $25, I have seen a recruitment for a K-Mart assignment that has a compensation of $10 and then a $1 reimbursement. The compensation usually is based on how much work the assignment will take as well as how desperate the company you are evaluating is to be evaluated. To be reimbursed you usually need to either take a picture of the receipt or upload a copy of the receipt. Either way, it is important you keep a copy of your receipt.
I have had one problem when it comes to mystery shopping. This weekend I signed up to do a mystery shopping assignment for Papa John’s — my favorite pizza company. I was really looking forward to this assignment because 1) I was watching football 2) pizza goes great with football 3) I love pizza. However, when I went to order the pizza, I was informed that the Papa John’s I was assigned to was not the closest restaurant — by a tenth of a mile — and thus I could not deliver from the restaurant 1.5 miles away (I MapQuested the distance). Because of my address and that tenth of a mile, I was not able to complete the assignment or get pizza.
My recommendation is to find a site where someone is recommending a variety of sites. This way you are able to ask questions and possibly go back to this individual and let them know if the mystery shopping service seemed like a scam.
