A Day in the Life as a Wife, Mom of Three, and Mystery Shopper

Back in the day before marriage and children, I worked retail for a children’s clothing store. I remember our supervisor calling a quick meeting to go over our results from being mystery shopped. Ever since then, I would wonder how people got that job. I remember seeing ads in the newspaper under the career section but was hesitant to follow through. After retail, I transitioned to social services and worked for a nonprofit agency for about 15 years. Fast forward to 2020 when the pandemic hit, like so many, huge adjustments had to be made since I had 3 young children to care for. Now that all the kids no longer went to school or daycare, I was only able to work very little from home. Not only that, our current lease was coming to an end, and we had to make a decision on whether or not we were going to stay in our current state which was very expensive, or relocate to a neighboring state that would be comfortable financially if we had to live off of one income. Since we were not sure what the future would hold since the world was literally shutting down, we decided to relocate which ended up being the best decision for us. It allowed me to stay home with the kids and accommodate their wacky pandemic schedule. So after we moved, I was still working very little from home for my agency but eventually had to give it up once things started shifting back to normal. 

In January 2023 I was on Instagram and a reel caught my attention. It was Mercedes Eckert advertising her mystery shopping organization. For some reason, I didn’t just bypass the reel and forget about it. I actually started looking deeper into it,  because like I mentioned before I always wondered how people got mystery shopping jobs. I’m not going to lie, I debated on trying because I thought it was a scam, some MLM, or a pyramid scheme. I even reached out to Mercedes personally to confirm her company was legit and, of course, she reassured me that it was. Her organization offered a free webinar that I watched and then from there I took the course and became a member of iShop. After taking the course, I went right to it and completed several mystery shopping jobs. The amount of money that I’ve earned so far definitely paid for the course and then some. I made hundreds of dollars in a short period of time & was able to pay for those extra expenses that easily add up when you have kids. 

I am so thankful that I discovered Mercedes & her mystery shopping company, iShop. The iShop mystery shopping community is so supportive and guides you through your experience no matter where you are on your journey. I will be forever grateful for the opportunities that I have to earn extra money on my own time. 

The best thing about mystery shopping is that you can create your own schedule and pretty much be in control of your time and money. You can mystery shop for a period of time just to reach certain financial goals, or you can do it as a side hustle to bring in extra income, or you could do it full-time. 

As a wife and busy mother of three, I have greatly enjoyed work that allows me to have the flexibility that I need to accommodate my family. Along with another side hustle that I started in 2019 I added mystery shopping to my life. 

As I mentioned above, as a mystery you can create your own schedule, and for me that changes all the time. I normally schedule my shops according to my husband's schedule because I have to make sure that he’s around for the kids. Until my youngest starts school full time, I only mystery on the weekends & the days my husband works from home. 

Here is an example of how my day can look during the weekend:

7:00 am- 9:00 am… Wake up, make the kids breakfast, toss in a load of laundry, and get ready for my day of running errands and mystery shopping.

9:30 am - 11:00 am…Grab a cup of coffee from a local coffee shop, head to the grocery store and get food for my family for the week, drop off or put away the groceries ( depending on time), put a load of clothes in the dryer, and toss another load in the washing machine.

11:30 am -2:30 pm…Complete mystery shopping route that I created. Normally some consist of food so I can bring back lunch/ dinner for my family! Free food always tastes good. 

3:00 pm…. I would go home with any free food that I got during my mystery shopping route & take a small break! 

3:30 pm-5:00 pm… I’ll complete a few more scheduled shops, usually retail. 

5:00 pm-11:00 pm…. At this point, I would complete the required questionnaire for any shop that I didn’t already complete. 

I’m excited to continue this journey of mystery shopping. I enjoy everything it has to offer from the flexibility, extra cash, free food, free products & free services, being part of iShop makes this experience so much better! 

Happy shopping!

Meet Maria! She's a wife and mother of 3 young children. She enjoys thrifting, park trips with the family,  nature walks, and coffee! She wants to share mystery shopping with friends and family so they can reap the benefits, and have the opportunity to increase their cash flow.