Making a Living by Mystery Shopping

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Based on my personal experience I would think it is impossible to make a living by mystery shopping.  I struggle to make even minimum wage for the mystery shops I complete.  However, My Frugal Miser has been making $2000 to $3000 a month from mystery shopping so it is possible to do mystery shopping as a full-time job.  He has gotten mystery shopping down to a science.

Since my Census Bureau employment will officially be ending tomorrow I have decided to see how much money I can make from mystery shopping.   I do have online income coming in so I won’t need to make all of my money from mystery shopping.  If I could make $1000 a month from mystery shopping I would feel like I was doing pretty good.  Right now $1000 a month seems unlikely but for the next month I am going to take every mystery shopping job I can, as long as I feel the job will pay me at least minimum wage.  At the end of the month I will report my results and whether I feel that mystery shopping is a viable main income source for me.

*** There is a chance that I will start a medical study midway through June.  In that case I will report my results for the next two weeks.

April Investment Income – $96.83

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My April investment income went down to $96.83 from $98.43 the month before.  This is because I didn’t add to my investments and the stock market went down.  I won’t be adding to my investments this month either and it looks like the stock market is going down more so my investment income will probably go down again.  This is a little frustrating since I was looking forward to getting over the $100 mark but as soon as I’m able to start adding to my investments I should reach the $100 goal.

Disclaimer: This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement savings, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings. What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income. My goal is to get this amount to $1000 a month. If I have $1000 in monthly passive investment income I will be able to retire early.

April Income – $934.03

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Here is a breakdown of my income for April.

Online Income

$641.21

Interest

$24.80

Stock Dividends

$24.75

Mystery Shops

$66

Bank Bonuses

$140

Surveys/Cashback

$7.27

Focus Group

$30

Total

$934.03

It was a decent month for income.  I made over $900 without any job income.  I did start work at the end of April but I’ll be paid for those days this month.   Since I am working a job this month some of my other sources of income will be down this month but the passive income should be about the same.  Overall though I will have a significant increase in income this month.

April Expenses – $982.73

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for April.

Household

$385.35

Entertainment

$67.30

Transportation

 $320.77

Food

$86.84
Medical/Dental

$57.44

Phone

$35.03

Debt

 $30.00

Total

$982.73

April’s expenses were not too bad.  They did total less than $1000 which is a goal I always shoot for.   My expenses could have been much lower but I spent a lot in the transportation category this month.  This is because I paid for six months of car insurance and I spent a lot on gas visiting my GF who lives three hours away from me.  I consider that money well spent.  Tracking all my expenses does help with my budgeting but I doubt I will be able to get my expenses any lower this month.  I will be visiting my GF every weekend and driving my car for my job.  I will be getting reimbursed for my mileage for my job.  I’m not sure how I will account for that on my expenses.  I will probably just count the mileage reimbursement as income and my car expenses as expenses.  I did manage to keep my food expenses under $100 last month and until the end of the month when I went on a fast-food binge I was well under.  I think I should be able to match or beat that this month as long as I can keep my fast-food cravings under control.   My other expenses should be about the same this month.