A dilemma - am I being picky/lazy?

oakdale_minx

For anyone who hasn't seen my ramblings on my diary, I'm working full time, am also now working for AQA and am signed up for 3 or 4 mystery shopping companies.

With the AQA money I'm targetting myself to earn, plus the £5000+ in refunded bank charges I'm persuing, I'm hopeful that in 2-3 months, all my unsecured debt will be paid, I will be reducing the term of my secured loan by at least 3, or maybe 4 years and I will be putting money away each month to replace my battered old car (although I won't be looking to spend more than £1000 tops on the replacement and it won't be until she literally dies on me).

So, my dilemma. In June and July, before I started with AQA I was like a dog begging for scraps looking for bits of mystery shopping. I took anything and everything however little it paid. Looking at it, I've only earned £71 so far over the last three months (and I will have to pay tax on that next year and some was parking and petrol). I'm doing one in a pub this Sunday and I've agreed to do one over the bank holiday weekend. And I'm still owed two lots of money from Gapbuster (probably about £12 fees + £15 items bought refund in total)

However, I've turned down four in the last three weeks, including one that's just arrived in my inbox. All local companies, and I would have earned about £40 between them. After petrol, parking, and tax, I reckon I'd end up with about £25-£30.

Should I be declining them just because AQA is going well? Or should I be taking anything and everything, however little the payment?

I'm working about 60-70 hour 7 day weeks at the moment and I just can't be bothered to go into town for a 15 minute conversation about a product knowing it will earn me £8.

Am I being lazy? Picky? Or am I doing enough already? (I'm also collecting pigsback points, greasypalm money , tesco vouchers, I ebay any freebies I get such as CD's from CD Wow and I've picked up a few free gifts from catalogues that are tucked away as presents)

I just feel a bit guilty turning down work that 6 weeks ago I was desparate for.

southernscouser

Don't feel guilty. Circumstances change. By turning it down it may well be offered to someone who needs the money more than you.

oakdale_minx

I hadn't thought of it that way.

You are right SS, there could be another DFW from my area (Poole if anyone wants the jobs, they are with IMS, Gapbuster, Grassroots and are all Poole town centre) who could take them on .

I've kept the free lunch one for this Sunday......anyone want to join me to help me spend £17??

lynzpower

I feel the same about mystery shopping, I did one, and the report was so bloody time consumeing I dont think I ever got paid for that in the end. Its fine if Im going somewhere anyway, but I dont think its for me trying to go places & spending up front, I cant really organise it. Id rather sell books on green metropolis!

savvykaz

Just out of interest which bank are you trying to re-claim £5000 in charges from? I am trying to re-claim £2,699 from Nat West but they aren't very forthcoming - just sent my letter before action.

oakdale_minx

I don't think I will get the gapbuster money back, they have a system where you fax off the receipts or send a digital scan or photo of them. Their next pay date is the 23rd, but I did the first one on 1 July and the second one about three weeks ago and haven't heard anything about payment. There is a 'burger' assignment (as I can't name the companies!) going with them, but the pay is something like £4 and you have £7 to spend on the food. I was tempted but thought, well, I wouldn't have been going there, and the petrol and parking would wipe out the payment.

IMS are good, they are a mix of mystery shopping auditing products or checking displays . The money is paid 15th of every month. I got £8.35 from them, but there was £1.20, petrol and I will have to pay tax, so I will have netted about £4 or so .

The pub one is my first with TNS. The tax is all sorted with them as I've filled in a form already with them, but i'm not sure how I go about submitting the receipt.

oakdale_minx

savvykaz wrote:

Just out of interest which bank are you trying to re-claim £5000 in charges from? I am trying to re-claim £2,699 from Nat West but they aren't very forthcoming - just sent my letter before action.

Two claims with the Abbey, both in the court system. I've just submitted the AQ with one, and the second I'm waiting for the acknowledgement, but time is ticking and I may get a judgement by default if they don't get their finger out.
Two with capital one - one at prelim, one at LBA
One with Citicards - filed with MCOL a week ago.

Good luck with yours - they won't want to play ball until the court claim goes in, but it's yours so don't give up!

Molanole

oakdale_minx wrote:

The pub one is my first with TNS. The tax is all sorted with them as I've filled in a form already with them, but i'm not sure how I go about submitting the receipt.

I did one with TNS last month. I had to print off a page once I'd got to the end of the questionnaire and then send the receipt off with it. I haven't heard anything from them yet though.

Mystery Shopping I have found to be a bit of a waste of time for me to be honest. I get taxed at the higher rate so it all ends up not being worth it especially as it's all pubs and bars in London where the prices are so much higher anyway. Plus with the hours I'm working my weekends are too precious to give up as it's where I catch up on sleep, food shopping, laundry, cleaning and all those other things. I've decided to give up on it for the time being

tyllwyd

I work freelance, so I'm always thinking about my hourly rate. If I'm not busy, I'll chase after surveys etc, but if I've got better paid work to do, I don't bother with them. It's down to you what is worth your while - everyone needs a bit of time off just to keep their brain functioning.

happyformonths

Tyllwyd is right - you've got to think about an hourly rate and weigh up whether X or Y piece of work is worth it. Yes every penny is "worth" earning in principle, but in reality there are only so many hours in a week and you have to sleep!

And bear in mind that this is a natural way of approaching work - you start off earning not very much, but accept it because that's the way it is at first, but then as other opportunities come up or you gain new skills your earning power naturally goes up, leaving room for someone else to "come in" on the lower levels, as it were.

Give yourself a break! You are certainly not being lazy - if I tried to earn £800 in a month on AQA my head would probably drop off!

Good luck.

HFM

Edited to add: just re-read your first post and realised that you are working full-time as well as AQA-ing. I'm getting worried about your health! I know you're knackered. Though I don't in any way want to sabotage your efforts with the money (and I totally understand the "I want to be debt-free yesterday!" feeling), please remember that your health comes first...

savvykaz

Are you doing the "court thing" via the internet or in person at a "proper" court