Nickel And Dimed

Nickel and Dimed In the book of Nickel and Dimed, the author Barbara Ehrenreich, decided to go undercover as a low wage worker. She wanted to find out how non-skilled workers made ends meet. Barbara’s goal was to find if she would be able to live off the money she earned, and by also having enough money to pay the monthly rent. This was not going to be an easy task for her; she was used to having a home, a companion, reputation, and of course an ATM card. In June 1998, Barbara left behind everything that was either meaningful or useful to her everyday needs. She was terrified at the beginning not wanting to be revealed for who she really was, a middle-class journalist who was about to explore the world that welfare mothers were living in. Barbara settled for an efficiency of five hundred dollars a month that was thirty miles north of Key West, Florida. When Barbara started searching a low wage job she had two rules. The first one was that she could not use any skills that came from her education or regular career. The second rule was that she had to take the best paying job that was offered to her at the time, and strive for the best on maintaining it. Barbara wanted to avoid being a waitress due to the fact that when she was eighteen it would leave her “bone tired.” For approximately three days she went out and applied at local hotels and supermarkets. After those days had passed she was surprised that she had not received any calls for an interview. She later comes up with the conclusion that the wanted ads were not very sufficient on the actual jobs that were open at that time. Barbara finally lands a job at a restaurant as a waitress. For two weeks she worked full time from two in the afternoon till ten at night, and earning only two dollars and forty-three cents plus tips. She analyzes her co-workers living conditions in order to get a better understanding on how they budget their money. For instance, ‘Gail,’ was sharing a room in a downtown house with