On the Road Again

Before sunrise I'll be headed north Thursday.  I'm mystery shopping several gas stations in Columbus, GA and will spend the night there.  On Friday I shop some gas stations in Auburn, AL, a payday advance in Birmingham, and begin a merchandising route there.  I also have about 20 gas stations to mystery shop in Birmingham.  It looks like I will earn about $500 from the work I am doing, plus free gas.  

While in Birmingham I have to begin the eviction process.  My newest tenant, who was referred to me by my  best friend, has turned out to be a scam artist.  She sends me small amounts of money, which is the only reason I've waited this long to evict her.  Between unkept promises and the bad check she wrote me, it's time for her to find a new home.  I dread having to rent the townhouse again so soon.  I really thought I was positioning myself to be able to settle down in Clearwater and not have to deal with vacancies for a while.

If everything works out the way it should I will be staying with my mom while in Birmingham.  Our relationship is such that she quite possibly will change her mind the day I arrive.  No worries - I've slept in the Corolla before.

When I return to Florida I have a big project waiting for me.  It's a new petroleum audit that looks rather tough.  I have 43 stores to do over 5 days.  Each store pays $14 so in total I will earn $602.  I just have to keep reminding myself how much I will make when I get discouraged.

Frugality, Florida style

One of the joys of moving somewhere new is figuring out the best ways to save money.  When I'm not shopping or exercising I am practicing extreme frugality:

• One of the Corolla's tires had a nail in it.  I passed up every repair shop until I found one that offered to repair my tire for $10.  
• I've figured out the best spot in my house to sit to "borrow" Internet from the unsecured connection provided by an anonymous neighbor (thank you, Netgear7).  This helps immensely for the short bursts of Internet I need to enter a shop or search the job boards.  
• We still haven't succumbed to cable, so DVDs borrowed from the library have become our primary form of family entertainment.  I also recently subscribed to the Wall Street Journal by redeeming some airline miles for a 39 week subscription.
• My $99 K-Mart bicycle is paying dividends.  I've lost almost 15 pounds in the two months we've been here.  I've also eliminated a number of trips in the car including errands and mystery shopping that can be done by bike.  It feels so good to shop a convenience store or restaurant and get paid to do it with no out of pocket costs whatsoever.
• Rather than using electricity to charge our phones or computers, we bring the chargers with us when we go to the library.  
• With the weather finally moderating (highs in the mid 80s, lows in the 60s), we have shut off the air conditioning and rely on windows and ceiling fans.  I expect our future power bills to be much lower than the $99 we spent in our first month here.
• I've diligently worked on reducing our food budget.  Last weekend I shopped 7 grocery stores ($70 in free groceries and $49 in fees).  I am also doing more reimbursement-only mystery shops if it means scoring a free meal.  Right now Food is the budget category I am most focused on reducing.

Overall I think we are making some frugal choices that don't entail sacrifice.  Once I have a few months under my belt I can take a quantitative approach to this by examining my budget to see how I am doing.

Last Week Recap and Plans for This Week

On the income side, last week I mostly looked for mystery shopping scraps.  By scraps I mean that most of what I did was the reject stuff other shoppers through under the table for the dog.  It's not as bad as it sounds.  I do get paid more for picking up the leftovers, plus the editors aren't so anal when they are facing a deadline and need to get a shop done.  Still, I only earned $297.48 in fees and $254 in reimbursements.  I am finding the Tampa Bay area a much more competitive market.  There are still shopping opportunities, but they don't tend to pay crap.

When I wasn't shopping I was exercising.  On some days I combined the two:  Saturday we biked 11 miles round trip to shop a fast casual restaurant.  It feels good to save a gas, burn some extra calories, and make a little money.  I am building stamina and taking longer bike rides.  Several of our jaunts have exceeded 10 miles.

This week looks depressing.  I have several restaurant shops scheduled, most of which are reimbursement-only.  When you're handed lemons, you make lemonade, right?  At least our food budget will benefit.  Next week I have to return to Birmingham to evict one of my tenants.  I put together a solid mystery shopping route around this so that I won't come out of pocket for gas and will earn about $500 in fees during the trip.

Just Shopping

I haven't had much to say because I've been doing so many mystery shops.  This has been a solid week as I have earned about $600 from mystery shopping in the last 7 days.  My routes have included gas station audits, hotels, several restaurants and car dealerships, and a few random shops thrown in for good measure.

I expect November and December to slow down.  Lately I've earned the majority of my income from one company (Maritz Research) and most all the projects I've been working this month are supposed to span the rest of the year.  Since I've already picked up every shop in my area, there probably won't be many opportunities through Maritz unless another shopper cancels shops they were assigned to or I create a route outside this area.  Taking Maritz as an example, there are only SEVEN open shops within a 50 mile radius of my house, and I can't think of any new projects they will be releasing for 2012 completion.

Looking back at previous years activity, December tends to be the slowest month of the year.  I suspect most MSC try to close our their year before the holidays, which pushes some work to November.  We are taking a 7 day cruise December 9th-16th and then I will likely be visiting family for the holidays.