I’ve read about the mystery shopper thing but never really investigated too much. I’ve always wished that I could find a profitable replacement for my day job.
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Mystery shopping can be fun and a supply of income. You won’t get rich mystery shopping by any means, and there is some up front money you may have to spend (ie required purchases, meals, etc).

To find the most mystery shopping opportunities in your area, I highly suggest sites such as Jobslinger (www.jobslinger.com). This will allow you to register for free and search for shops within your area.

Since mystery shoppers are independent contracters, they can perform shops for as many companies as they’d like. Since each company has work in different geographical areas and industries, it is best to register with as many as you can.

It will take some work up front, but once you’re settled and get in the groove, you can be successful in the industry.

Good luck to you and to anyone else interested in getting started in mystery shopping!
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You can earn money by mystery shopping but as you said you need to consider the costs. I have done a few mystery shops and I have a friend who does a lot of mystery shops.

Some of things that they want you to do are dificult. One fast food restaurant required that you report the time of how long it took for you to be waited on and then how long it took after you ordered for you to get your food. But you were not allowed to look at your watch.
Another required you to take outside photos of a gas station and make a purchase. You were not allowed to be seen taking the pictures.
My friend had a great shop where she had to visit a music store and act interested in a piano. If the salesperson gave her the sales information then my friend got to present the salespeson with a check for $100. The salesperson gave the sales pitch perfectly and was so excited to get the check.

Aa the other poster mentioned NEVER pay to do a mystery shop or to get a list of mystery shops.
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I did some mystery shopping in the past but did not keep up with it as the reporting can take up quite some time. Fortunately for me, Singapore is a small country so I did not have much traveling problem. And usually I would choose areas near where I live and I just needed about 10 minutes to get to the place. It was fun to do mystery shopping especially if you have a sincere and keen interest to help others improve their services.

I know that there are legitimate mystery shopper companies, but I also know that an enormous amount of the scams reported to the Better Business Bureau involve mystery shopper companies. Just something to keep in mind. The scams sound very sophisticated. My friend who was investigating these for the BBB explained that the shoppers were actually paid with shell funds that seemingly cleared even though there was no money to back it up. 2 weeks later these shell funds were no longer in their account because they had never existed.
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I have done dome mystery shopping. It is tedious for what you get out of it. You do not make much and the ones I have done were VERY picky about the reports and so detail about times and what was said etc. I do not like the ones where you are to pretend to buy something (jewelry) that you have no intention of really buying.