In keeping with the theme of changing my life, I've decided to tackle my debt in earnest for the sheer fact that I need the freedom being debt free will give me. It is a means to an end. Debt doesn't really bother me if only it didn't affect every single other aspect of my life. As such, I have to deal with it. I never learned how to take control of my finances, even when I paid everything off four years ago. I mean, clearly. I'm back to square one here. However, I've decided to just take the lesson and learn what I can from it, namely, stop buying shit I don't need. The world's landfills don't need another supplier. Yeah, that's right. I'm doing this for the WORLD. You're welcome.
I feel good. Honestly, I do. My dreams are still going to happen, however they will be on hiatus until I get all my debt cleared away. Why can't 2014 be the year I do it? I read this article recently and it inspired me. I have spent a few days looking for ways to make extra money (even more than my two jobs already affords me) and I ended up signing up to become a mystery shopper. (Ooooo what could it be???)
I am under no delusions that such a venture will net me any kind of real profit; I'm approaching it as more of a "that's $15 I didn't have before and now I can get two beers at the bar instead crying at home in a corner because I'm not spending money." And it is basically not a lot of work for that money so why not, right? I found this website (through that article) and signed up and just like that, I embarked on the adventure of a lifetime....
Not really. However, I did find an assignment within a couple of days that was minutes from my house and I agreed to do it yesterday afternoon. Before this, I knew nothing whatsoever about mystery shopping, assuming as one does, that there was shady dealing and costumed role play with large hats involved.
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| Me as a mystery shopper at the self portrait store. |
Sadly, there is no costuming. In fact, you have to be completely inconspicuous. And you have to pretend you are an actual customer. I am a really terrible actress. I'm one of those types of actresses who has to believe what I'm saying so if I were a good actress, I'd follow the method school and have to "live" the part. However, despite the fact that I'm a bad one, I still need to live the part. I know this because in order to prepare for the part of "customer"I had a lot of difficulty coming up with a believable scenario to give to the store employee in order to evaluate their performance. Sincerely, I came up with about a dozen ideas and rejected them all as being 'too fake' when in reality, they were all totally believable. At one point, very shortly after taking the assignment, I thought about cancelling, convincing myself that I was going to give myself away and have to run out of the store in embarrassment. This is why I can only ever go out for the parts they give to extras in the background; I'm an overthinker and an exaggerated situation my head-er.
The actual shopping went relatively smoothly. I notice everything anyway so it is kind of natural to me to describe people's demeanor and physical attributes. I'm not good at a lot of things but I can read people and evaluate situations pretty well. It was just the lying. O the humanity! I finally settled on a few scenarios to give to the employees and they all performed in stellar ways. Well, stellar is a strong word. They all performed in satisfactory ways. And my story held up. I had even invented a character in my mind, never realizing that I'd need to use my debit card to pay so I'm glad I never had to fake a name. It would have been P.J. O'Pootertoot, or something equally believable. Today, mystery shopping a Walgreens. Next stop, espionage school.
What should I do with the $15 they are sending me?
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