Mystery shopping is an excellent way to make extra cash and to supplement meals. There are other activities that aren't necessarily mystery shops, but they are another way to save money.

Gleaning:
Have you ever seen a broken box of cookies or a piece of wilted lettuce on the produce area? Those items are quickly removed by volunteers known as "gleaners." Gleaners visit just about every grocery store in every city. They take extra items not needed, partially damaged items or broken items from the grocery store.

Once the items have been removed from the store, they are taken to a volunteers house for cleaning or sorting. If a box of strawberries had a few smashed berries, the damaged ones would be removed and the good berries would remain in the container. If a box of cookies was just dented, the box would be sorted with similar products.

The items are separated by category and the cold items are kept in a refrigerator. Volunteers may have organizations that they work with to distribute the extra food items. The leftover items are divided among the gleaner volunteers.

Gleaners typically have one 4 hour shift a week. They don't take any food during their first training sessions. Once they have gotten the hang of the activity, they are allowed to take items home with them.

Groceries can be expensive. Gleaning is a wonderful way to help other people and to help yourself.

You can check your local yellow pages or do a google search to see what gleaning organizations are near you.