Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Wheeeee mystery shopping

So with Boyfriend's recent unemployment, I have cranked up doing the mystery shopping. Yeah, I probably should have been cranking it up all along, to help pay down the mountain of debt in whose shadow I live, but I'd been taking it easy for a while. But now with the extra $75 or so per month to pay on the CareCredit card from the vet bills, and I hit the end of the two years of low payments on my Sallie Mae loans (and, naturally, their online system for trying to get it lowered again has been down ever since I started trying to lower it), I really need to get going.

So in the next month I will be doing:

Four price audits (taking pictures of prices at a home store)
Three grocery store alcohol audits (I buy some booze and see if they ID me)
Two Pinkerton open houses
One fitness center shop

And a partridge in a freaking pear tree. In the past two weeks, I have also done a cigarette audit (I try to buy cigarettes without showing ID - with my baby face I do a lot of these and ones for alcohol), an apartment shop, an alcohol audit (but this time I did get to show ID and buy some Guinness, which I don't drink, cause I don't drink), and drove a brand new car. Unfortunately a lot of this money won't roll in for a while - a few weeks up to two months away - but it won't start coming in unless I start doing stuff. It's nice to keep getting small amounts and sticking it in savings - it also on more than one occasion has saved my keister when there is an unexpected expense.

I would also like to give a shout out to Text Link Ads and LinkWorth, who find me buyers for text link space at the bottom of the right sidebar. I don't get paid as much for the links as when I deal with the sellers directly, and it costs them more, but then I don't have to find them and they don't have to go looking for me either. It is painless to do and gives you a bit of predictable income - definitely different than mystery shopping. If you have a blog you should check it out, and if you love me, you'll use my links. :)

Am feeling somewhat better about the departed guinea pig - I'd been kind of expecting her to die for a while as she was obviously unwell and not eating for a few days. I put the other guinea pig in her cage (the departed pig's was bigger) and the other guinea pig ATE the ramp connectors and so the ramp to the water bottle platform fell off. Oh, rodents. I bought a new one online (about $5, with $5.50 shipping of course) and will attempt to put her in the big cage again when it arrives. With all the non-food items they enjoyed consuming, it's a wonder either of them is alive.

Boyfriend also has a very promising interview on Thursday, with a really great company making MORE than he did at the old job. The place is so awesome, their average tenure for people in his position is about 14 years. Which means people love it so much they NEVER LEAVE. They even have a gym with a POOL. Can you tell by the use of caps that we are both very excited about this? Hopefully it is someplace he can be happy for a long time (unless the FBI finally calls him up, of course.)