Alternative Income

May Income – $1614.01

by

Here is a breakdown of my income for May.

Online Income

$580.69

Interest

$29.61

Stock Dividends

$14.87

Mystery Shops

$39.86

Bank Bonuses

$10

Surveys/Cashback

$14.71

Job

$924.27

Total

$1614.01

It was a pretty good month for income but not as good as I had planned.  I had planned on working more for the Census but with my relocation that didn’t happen.  This month I will have very little job income so my income total will be way down.  My main sources of income this month will be alternative income and passive income.  I should make a little more from mystery shops and maybe a little more from online income.  There probably won’t be any other big changes to my income unless I get in the medical study.

Making a Living by Mystery Shopping

by

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.

March Income – $1218.21

by

Here is a breakdown of my income for March.

Online Income

$602.19

Interest

$34.60

Stock Dividends

$92.79

Job

$378

Bank Bonuses

$110

Cashback

$0.63

Total

$1218.21

It was a decent month for income considering I was hiking and without computer access for half the time. It was less than my expenses though which isn’t good. It will be a challenge to make $1000 this month since I won’t have any job income.  My job starts at the end of the month and I won’t receive a paycheck until sometime in March.  If I can make $500 in alternative income as is my goal then I should make at least $1000 total with my online income, dividends, and interest added to the extra income total.

January Income – $1805.92

by

Here is a breakdown of my income for January.

Online Income

$407.62

Interest

$51.83

Stock Dividends

$20.33

Job

$971.33

Survey/Cashback

$6.67

Ebay/Selling stuff

$108.14

Bank Bonuses

$240

Total

$1805.92

January was a pretty good month for income. It was nice to see that I made almost as much from my alternative income sources as I did from my job. It will be difficult to match my alternative income total this month although I already know my online income will be up. As long as my income is a few hundred dollars more than my expenses I will be content.

December Income – $896.30

by

Here is a breakdown of my income for December.

Online Income

$414.12

Interest

$46.95

Stock Dividends

$117.96

Job

$309.32

Survey/Cashback

$7.95

Total

$896.30

I did manage to increase my income in December as compared to November. It still wasn’t quite enough to cover my expenses though. I do need to start making more money than I spend and I should be able to do that this month. I didn’t make much money from my job last month since I didn’t have the opportunity to work very many hours. That will change this month and I should make quite a bit more money from the job. It will not be full-time hours and the pay isn’t much so it isn’t going to be too much. It is a good thing I have passive income and alternative income to help pay my bills as well.

A lot of my stocks paid dividends in December but not as many pay dividends in January so that will be down this month.  There probably won’t be any other significant changes in my income this month.