Nickels and Dimes

I don't know whether I'm an optimist or if I'm just easy to please. We've had little bits of "income" lately and I think I'm getting a bigger kick out of them than I would if one of the part-time jobs were to come through for me.

Yesterday I made the Internet rounds to all the companies who've hired me to mystery shop for them. There are about a dozen, but I haven't worked for some of them for several months. I was checking for completed jobs still pending payment, and for jobs to do in the future. There were three payments pending, but no jobs available that were close enough for me to do. So, I was surprised when just a couple hours later I got a call from one of these companies asking if I'd do a toy demo at a nearby Wal-Mart in February. (Yes, demos are sometimes part of mystery shopping.) The demo pays $10/hour and is for four hours, so I said yes to that.

Another company emailed me about "closing confirmation" job. All I have to do is drive to a fast-food store that has closed and take photos to prove that they really are closed and that all signage has been removed. That pays $10, so I said yes to that one, also.

Meanwhile, I've been listing things to sell on eBay. We looked around the house and found things that we no longer want or need. We've sold several video games, some books and some cross stitch supplies so far, and I'm happy to say that the auctions have been doing better than I expected this time around. It's fun to watch the bids increase at the end of the auctions. I haven't tallied it all up, but I estimate we've made close to $125 from eBay this week.

I guess in the grand scheme of things, this is all small change, but even nickels and dimes add up to a dollar eventually.