Vocabulary. Section 5. Pages 114-142. Brittney Nehring

Pg. 117 Baguette: long narrow loaf of French bread

Pg. 117 Pariah: outcast

Pg. 127 Evince: to show clearly

Pg. 127 Rankles: to cause irritation or bitter resentment within the mind

Pg. 128 Contrition: sincere remorse

Pg. 130 Diuretic: increases the volume of urine excreted

Pg. 133 Tribulations: severe sufferings

Pg. 134 Baleful: miserable

Pg. 137 Unctuous: characterized by excessive moralistic dedication

Pg. 142 Aphasic: disorder of central nervous system (not able to speak or write)

Graphic Organizer. Section 5. Pages 114-142. Kallie Thoreson

Things Looking Up in Minnesota:



In this section, things begin to look up for Ehrenreich.  She makes her move from Maine to Minnesota where she starts by living in an apartment belonging to friends of a friend.  She is able to stay there for a few days at no cost to her in exchange for her taking care of the apartment owners’ bird.  Later when searching for a job, the author passes the personality tests at both Wal-Mart and Menards; however, she is told she must pass a drug test before she will be hired.  Ehrenreich is concerned about the drug test and is worried she will not be able to pass.  Not long after, the author finds housing.  She is not overly pleased with the housing, but after all, it is a place where she can stay.  She later is told to show up for orientation at Menards where she learns she is hired and assumes she passed the drug test.  An even bigger surprise for Ehrenreich is that finds out she will be making $10 an hour instead of the $8.50 she was promised earlier.  After hearing this news, she decides she won’t necessarily need two jobs, but she keeps the possibility of working at Wal-Mart open when she attends the orientation there.  Overall, this section was quite positive for Ehrenreich.

Nickel and Dimed: April 29th, 2011. Journal 2

This section starts with the author job searching. Ehrenreich finally got two jobs after she moved to Maine. One job was as a maid and the other was as a dietary aide at a nursing home.  As a maid, Ehrenreich makes $6.65 an hour. Although the author is doing the same work for the same pay, she feels sympathetic towards her fellow co-workers. An example of her worry for a co-maid is when she observes another maid frequently not eating a sufficient meal for lunch.   As a dietary aide, she also is responsible for the serving and cleaning up of meals at the nursing home. One of the cooks at the nursing home invited Ehrenreich to a smoke date in the parking lot. He seems to be interested in her but she blows him off. In this section, the author ends up living in a motel week to week because she could not afford to live in a traditional apartment.

            As a group we all agree that we wouldn’t want to work any of Ehrenreich’s jobs. They are physically demanding, often leaving the author in physical pain. In addition to the physical nature of her work, she is also poorly compensated. We can’t believe that people can manage to support families on so little.  We were also surprised about the cramped quarters she kept at the Blue Haven. She writes that when she takes a shower there is not enough room for her and her clothes on the floor: “the bathroom being too small for both a person and her discarded clothes” (85).

            The author describes how when she waited at Jerry’s her uniform was a conversation starter. When she was out in public in her maid uniform, she was continually looked down upon, especially when buying beer. We related to this situation because we too have judged people by their appearance. One of our group members can directly relate to this experience. When at work, this group member frequently would see workers from fast food restaurants and feel superior to them because they were middle aged and working a job typically held by a teenager.

            After reading this section, we feel that we can use this information shared by Ehrenreich in real life.  As a group, we too feel more sympathetic towards low-wage workers.  We now realize the amount of effort they put into their jobs and realize that it requires a lot of physical and emotional effort.  They do not get paid enough for the amount of work they put into their jobs.  We all feel that we will now give these people more respect for their jobs because they may not have a choice for what they do.  Ehrenreich’s comments made it seem that these minimum wage workers do not receive this kind of respect.  She explains that when these workers get complimented for their efforts, they feel proud and it makes them very excited.

            Ehrenreich made an interesting point in this section.  She was describing her efforts to obtain government food aid.  She makes the point that those people that are in the most need of this free food are the people who are already working multiple jobs trying to support themselves as much as they can.  They do not have the available time because they use up all of their time working.  On the other hand, those people that are able to obtain this free food are the ones who are not working as much.  This opinion is especially expressed in her quote: “What is this assumption that the hungry are free all day to drive around visiting ‘community action centers’ and charitable agencies?” (102). We found this idea contradicting and surprising.

Summarizer. Section 5. Pages 114-142. Alex Webster

Barbara moves from Maine to Minnesota. She ends up in the apartment of a friend of a friend. She starts looking for a job but learns most of them require drug tests. She has to detox because she smoked marijuana. She passes both her Wal-Mart and Menards tests. She finds out that she will be making ten dollars an hour at Menards and only seven at Wal-Mart.  She has a tough time looking for apartments and for the short term moves into the Hill View motel.

I found it interesting that she revealed to the reader that she had done drugs. Up until that point I never thought that she would use drugs, but after reading it, it’s not too unbelievable. She could have left it out to make herself look more superior. But she left it in, making her seem more like the people who apply for low wage jobs. She came off as more of realistic person for the job.

Discussion Leader. Section 5. Pages 114-142. Kassi Bierman

1.  The author addresses this question herself in her story.  Why do you think these low-wage workers keep working as a cleaning maid when there are so many other minimum wage, or higher, jobs available that could be easier?
     These people may stick with the job because they know it; it is familiar to them.  They may feel that they are lucky to have a job at all and work with what they have.  They may also just accept the fact that in order for them to survive on minimum wage they will have to work very hard with little reward no matter what their job is.  They may also not have the time to waste searching for another job; they took the first opportunity that they had.


2.  Why do you think the author takes the time to go into detail explaining the entire application and orientation processes of job searching?
     I think she does this to show the extra work that goes into job search and how hard it actually is for some people.  She shows that it's not simply turning in a sheet of paper; you have to call and in her case make personal appearances to her potential employers.  I think this also shows the additional chances of failure a job searcher may face.  She has to pass personality tests, drug tests, and interviews.  She goes into detail to show every aspect of difficulties these workers face.


3.  What are some specific details the author writes about that makes this experiment show some real struggles for a person trying to live on minimum wage?
     One example would be how well she explains the drug test process. This is a step many applicants must go through and some may have problems with it just as the author did.  She also discusses the problems with finding a reasonable apartment.  Not every city has cheap apartments available like they may advertise; some may have to resort in living in a motel on a week to week basis.  She also talks about the gas money she has to spend to do all of her applying and commuting to interviews; people may not consider this but it is an area of spending as well.

4. Why do you think Barbara briefs a few of her coworkers of her experiment near the end of her time with them?
     I think she informs them why she is actually working there mainly to record their reactions.  She incorporates their responses into her book, providing a different aspect to the story.  She may also do this in pure curiosity; she wants to see what they will say or if he coworkers even care.  She also briefs them so she can ask them additional questions, including why they continue to work at such insufficient jobs.

Graphic Organizer. Section 4. Pages 87-114. Kassi Bierman

     These are four events that pose as setbacks for Babara during this section.  She has an accident and breask something at work and also confronts Ted, her boss, about a problem she has regarding Holly working on her hurt ankle.  These are issues because she is scared both times that she could possible be fired for these actions.  She also finds out rent is higher than expected which shorts her on cash.  When she has to work by herself at the nursing home for a day she is worried that she will mess up; a mistake here could threaten a patient's life.  All of these problems put her jobs and finances at risk.

Discussion Leader. Section 4. Pages 87-114. Alex Webster

Given that you were in Barbara’s situation, what would you have done when Holly injured her ankle and why?

I would have gone to see if she was okay and try to help her out as much as possible. I would have helped her with her work and told her to go to the hospital. But I wouldn’t have gone and yelled at her and yelled at Ted. It is not my life so I would have left the decision to her. She is an adult and can make her own decisions.

In this section Ted says, “Well, I’m a parent too, and that doesn’t make me less of a person.” To which Barbara responds with “It’s supposed to make you more of a person.” Do you agree with Barbara and why?

                In some ways she is right and in other ways not. Parents seem to be more of a person in general to their kids. They stick up for them do things for them and forgive them. But that doesn’t seem to translate to the general public. Most adults are parents yet they don’t act motherly or fatherly towards the general public. If they did people would be more forgiving and want better things for each other.

                In your opinion is someone lazy who has their house cleaned by professional cleaners?

                Yes, I would find it extremely weird to have other people in my house cleaning it especially if I was there while they were doing it. If you are there to supervise them that makes you look like you so against work that you will stand and watch someone else do it. I have never had anyone outside my family clean our house and I would never want someone to do it. Unless you live in a huge mansion where you would never be able to clean the whole thing then I do not see a reason to have someone clean for you.

If you were forced to permanetly work a low paying job, what kind of job would you want to work and why?

I would continue to work at my job as a grocery clerk. It pays a decent amount and is not to hard. I get to talk and nothing is to strict. I would also be in charge so i would be able to do more of what I want. Finally I get along well with my co-workers and boss.

Summarizer. Section 4. Pages 87-114. Brittney Nehring

Barbara continues working for Ted at The Maid’s.  Her entire body breaks down with a rash, in which she applies anti-itch cream.  She explains that Ted doesn’t have much sympathy for illnesses, and he always tells his workers to “work through it,” so that’s what she does.  Barbara describes the three different types of toilet stains and disgusting pubic hairs she constantly finds.  Barbara then describes how the people who hire maids are rich and some of the house owners do little checks to make sure they are cleaning well.  Some will leave mounds of dirt in a hard to get spot and check if they are there after the cleaning is done.  She is told that she needs to work as if she is under surveillance at all times, and sometimes money is even left out (for which she believes is a “test” of honesty).  Barbara is cleaning one woman’s house and she drops a pot which comes crashing down on the lady’s fishbowl which breaks and everything gets soaked with water, even her cookbooks.  Barbara is having a difficult time with money, because they hold her first check and she was unpleasantly surprised to find out that rent for that first week was $200 instead of $120.  Her next day at the nursing home she struggles a lot because they are short staff and the upstairs dishwasher is broken so she is required to do extra work.  When she works at The Maid’s again, Holly (coworker) trips in a hole in the ground and hurts her ankle really bad.  She is in a lot of pain but won’t go to the doctor and when they call Ted he doesn’t seem to care so Barbara blows.  She is extremely mad and is unsure if Ted will fire her when they get back to the office that afternoon.

Throughout this section the author seems to be continually disappointed; she has to work by herself as a dietary aide, has to pay more for rent, is upset when she can’t get any financial help, gets a rash over her entire body, and she gets upset with Ted when he doesn’t care about Holly hurting herself.  The tone seems to be very negative because of all these undesirable events.  She also presents herself as if everyone is as smart as her when she says there are tons of jobs and that anyone can pass that “Accutrac test.”  She feels bad then because she realizes taking that test might have been difficult for the other girls.

Vocabulary Builder. Section 4. Pages 87-114. Kallie Thoreson

BLUDGEON pg. 88 – to force into something

SEDENTARY pg. 91 – not physically active

CURTAIL pg. 94 – to make less by or as if by cutting off or away some part

BEREAVEMENT pg. 95 – the state of fact of being deprived of something or someone

WANLY pg. 97 – showing or suggesting ill health, fatigue, unhappiness, etc.

BOURGEOISIE pg. 97 – a class that is primarily concerned with property values

HAUGHTINESS pg. 99 – blatantly and disdainfully proud

WIZENED pg. 103 – to become dry, shrunken, and wrinkled

ENCOMIUM pg. 109 – a formal expression of praise

ABJECT pg. 112 – cast off, rejected

Graphic Organizer. Section 3. Pages 60-86. Alex Webster

Alex Webster

Barbara moves from Key West to Maine. She rents a room by the week at the Blue Harbor Hotel. She lives in a shed of sorts, but she has her own bathroom and bed. She gets two jobs after applying for many. She works at Woodcrest serving food. She also does maid work for the Maids.

Discussion Leader. Section 3. Pages 60-86. Brittney Nehring

1.       What was your favorite part in this section, and why?

For me, the most interesting was when she talked about her job at the nursing home.  Although she is a dietary aide, and I am a nurse aide, she still describes instances with the residents.  These people seem so relatable to what I go through every day at work.  We too have the diabetic resident who tries snatching food from other residents’ trays.  She tells about the resident who pours orange juice over her French toast, this reminded me of a resident who put her banana in her soup and ate it.  We have such similar residents, who will reject what was cooked for the main meal and request other things.  I really like this part because it makes me laugh inside because I know exactly what she is experiencing and it sounds identical to the nursing home I work at.

2.       When Barbara’s coworker talks about their place of work, he says it “feeds” on gossip, can anyone relate to this?

I think that this goes for many jobs.  I know I can really relate to this, my workplace seems like it operates the same way.  Whenever anyone says anything, everyone else hears about it in a short period of time.  Whether it is something that person did over the weekend or something a resident said to them, people always talk about it. I do think that this helps people stay energized and relieve some of their stress talking about other people’s problems.   I agree that you need to watch out who you say things in front of, because there are always the people that are good workers, but they will stab you in the back.

3.       How did you react when Barbara was working with the other maids and she sees how poor they are (when one of the girls can’t even afford a soda)?

I felt bad because these women are working for such little money.  When the company is actually getting $25.00 an hour and some of their employees have to work a whole shift on only a bag of chips, that’s sad.  But I also wonder where all of her money is going and if she spends it very wisely. 

4.       Do you think or wonder if any of the conditions of her apartment (cottage) she explains are an exaggeration?

I really wonder about these conditions, although I know these places aren’t very good quality and are very small.  She says that she can’t even change her clothes in the bathroom because it is too small for a person and her discarded clothes.  This makes me really wonder because from the cover of the book she looks like a very slim person, therefore a bigger woman shouldn’t be able to fit in the bathroom then.  She also says the toilet is less than four feet from the kitchen table, wow this place is small!

Summarizer. Section 3. Pages 60-86. Kallie Thoreson

The author begins this section of the book still job searching in Maine.  She is still living at the Motel 6, and after some time gets two phone calls.  One is from a nursing home that says she can start working there the next morning.  She will work there on weekends making $7 an hour.  The other phone call is from The Maids.  They tell her that she can start working Monday morning and that she will make $6.65 an hour.  Overall, the first day at the nursing home goes well.  Ehrenreich serves meals to residents and cleans up after them.  She gets to know Pete, one of the cooks, who tells her a little bit about the nursing home and what she should know about it.  Later that night she went to a "tent revival" advertised by a local church.  She was looking for some entertainment, but didn't end up getting much out of the night.  On Sunday the author moved into her cottage at The Blue Heron.  It turns out that the cottage is a lot smaller than she remembers.  Ehrenreich started working for The Maids that Monday morning.  She found the work to be challenging and hard on her body.  Ehrenreich ends this section of the book with her first Friday with The Maids.  This particular September afternoon in Maine was unusually hot - 95 degrees!  The team that Ehrenreich was a part of that day ended up working in a mansion-like house.  She realized how strenuous working as a maid can be when she was assigned to scrub floors on her hands and knees.

Despite the hard work Ehrenreich comes across, this section was written rather positively.  She is hopeful when she moves to Maine and sees that she will have an easy time finding employment.  It seems as though she is also encouraged that she won't necessarily have to be a server, but can do something new.  However, at the end of this section the author seems somewhat discouraged by the last day she has worked for The Maids.

Vocabulary. Section 3. Pages 60-86. Kassi Bierman

1.       Page 60-maroon: to leave somebody or something somewhere with no means of getting away

2.       Page 61-congenial: pleasant and suited to somebody's character or tastes

3.       Page 63-protestation: the act of expressing strong disapproval of or disagreement with something

4.       Page 63-postprandial: occurring after a meal, especially an evening meal

5.       Page 65-carousing: to drink and become noisy, especially in a group

6.       Page 65-sentient: capable of feeling and perception

7.       Page 66-accolade: a sign or expression of high praise and esteem for somebody

8.        Page 78-Prima facie: on initial examination or consideration

9.       Page 78-comportment: the way in which somebody behaves

10.   Page 82-tchotchke: a trinket or piece of bric-a-brac

Nickel and Dimed: April 22, 2011. Journal 1

          Nickel and Dimed: Journal Number 1 (1-60)

This far in the book, the author has spent one month in Florida and is starting her next month in Maine.  Her time in Florida was primarily spent as a server and at this point in the book she is still job searching in Maine.  Before reading there were some assumptions that our group made.  We assumed the author would begin her work without as much as she did.  She decided to always have a car with her and she started with extra money in an “emergency fund”.  Trying to make ends meet with a car and extra cash makes it seem less risky for her and possibly not truly living like the poor.  As the book progresses, we are finding out that this book is written for anyone who is making more than minimum wage to show readers more of what it is like to live on minimum wage.  After reading this much, we have found that the author’s tone is casual.  She tells of experiences that are relatable.  She is very descriptive and gives characters to follow.  Some of the things the author does throughout this section of the book are surprising to the readers.  We were all surprised that she took time to go home and take breaks every now and then.  During her breaks at home she did still take money for food out of her minimum wage earnings which was surprising to us.  We all agreed that it would be very easy for her to “cheat” during her time at home.  Another thing we found surprising was that she found several help-wanted ads, but had such a hard time finding a job.  She looked through several papers and visited many hotels and restaurants, but still found it challenging to be offered a job.  This book is very relatable to the topics we have covered in class.  She is discouraged from taking jobs traditionally held by minorities in the Key West area.  An example of this is when she applies for a housekeeping position, but is instead steered towards waitressing in the attached restaurant because she is white and is a native English speaker.  Minorities were also discussed in class and brought up in this book.  Several of the workers making minimum wage that the author runs into in this book were of a minority.  The most recently discussed in class was the issue of poverty which directly relates to this book.  The whole purpose of this book is for the author to determine if it is feasible to live on minimum wage jobs. An important passage is on page 59. “What these tests tell employers about potential employees is hard to imagine, since the “right” answers should be obvious to anyone who has ever encountered the principle of hierarchy and subordination. The real function of these tests, I decide, is to convey information not to the employer but to the potential employee, and the information being conveyed is always: You will have no secrets from us. We don’t just want your muscles and that portion of your brain that is directly connected to them, we want your innermost self.” This is an important passage because it shows how the corporate world really sees its’ employees. It’s like the company owns the worker in and out of work. There really not treating them like people, but more like property. You will do this and do that.

Graphic Organizer. Section 2. Pages 30-59. Brittney Nehring





Barbara struggles to hold two jobs at once; she constantly takes Advil and drinks plenty of caffeine to keep herself going.  In the beginning of this section, she is working at both Hearthside and Jerry’s momentarily.  She quits Hearthside and maintains her job at Jerry’s.  She thought that moving closer to Key West would be a good idea so she finds a trailer to rent.  This would eliminate a 45 minute drive, therefore save her time and gas.  She decides to get a job housekeeping at the motel attached to Jerry’s (She is told no one can ever do both).  Her first day of working both places didn’t go so well.  First she had to do housekeeping at the motel, then she had to go waitress at Jerry’s.  She ends up leaving work and moves to Maine.  There she spends three days in a motel, then finds a decent cottage for $120/week.  She is now in the process of filling out applications and attending interviews. This diagram shows the timeline of jobs and situations she went through in this short period of time.

  

Discussion Leader. Section 2. Pages 30-59. Kallie Thoreson

1.  Ehrenreich tells us that she takes occasional breaks from this life and goes home now and then to catch up.  How does this affect how she views her "old" life and her "new" life?
When she goes home the author is seeing the differences between her "old" and "new" life.  She is starting to think her "old" life is strange. Ehrenreich realizes how much time some people who are making much more than minimum wage have on their hands when she tries to catch up on e-mails and phone messages.  She is also amazed at the amount she used to spend on things when she is paying bills.  On page 34, Ehrenreich admits that she is starting to view the people from her "old" life as a "distant race of people".


2.  Ehrenreich forms a "mutual-support" group with the other women serving at Jerry's.  How does their discussion reveal that they are in the same boat as Ehrenreich (living on minimum wage)?
The different things that these women discuss reveal that they too are living on minimum wage.  They frequently talk about their job and their living accommodations.  They also talk about "typical girl things" (men, children, chocolate peanut-butter cream pie), but never talk about potentially expensive things.


3.  The author chose Maine as her next location for its whiteness.  How will this influence her time spent there?
Ehrenreich believes it will be very easy to find employment in Maine.  She tells that not only are the professors and students all white, but so are the hotel keepers, panhandlers, and cab drivers.  Because everyone else is white, the author feels she will have an easy time fitting in and a quick time finding a job.


4.  What is one way (towards the end of this section) that Ehrenreich starts to realize what it means to be truly poor?
She begins by making a comment that what she is doing (leaving home and going somewhere 2000 miles away) is rather odd if you're not involved in the witness protection program.  On page 52 the author tells, "This is not all that different from the kinds of dislocations that routinely segment the lives of the truly poor".  It is at this point that she becomes aware that the truly poor have to do whatever they can to make ends meet.  If it means picking up and moving 2000 miles away to an unfamiliar place, that is what they will do.  Ehrenreich ends on page 53 by saying, "Here I am - as clueless and alone as I have ever been in my grown-up life".

Summarizer. Section 2. Pages 30-59. Kassi Bierman

     This chapter begins by describing her new job place, Jerry's.  She describes is as much busier than Hearthside.  She was complimented for showing up for her second day of work, because most new workers can't even handle that.  She then realizes these two jobs are too difficult and decides to quit her job at Hearthside (she received more money at Jerry's).  She begins to make friends at Jerry's, or at least become more acquainted with her co-workers.  Once she saves some money she decides to combine that with her emergency funds and move out of her apartment.  She rents out the trailer that she had previously looked at; it is only ten miles from her work.  One day at work she finds out that one of her friends, George from Czech, whom she was slowly teaching English, had stolen from the storage shed at Jerry's. 


     Later in the section she lands a job in housekeeping at the nearby hotel.  She is told there that no one has lasted more than five days working at these two jobs.  She doesn't return to her next day of work.  One day back at Jerry's things got a little crazy.  She was handling too many tables at once and being asked to do a lot of extra work.  After being yelled at by one of her bosses she chooses to walk out in the middle of her shift.  She doesn't go back and gives the keys to one of her homeless co-workers for the remaining of her rent that she had payed.
     After this she moves to Maine for her next part of the experiment.  She learns that housing will be just as expensive as in Key West.  She stays in a Motel 6 while house and job hunting.  After viewing one room to rent and finding it disturbing she find an apartment for $120 a week, decent price for this area.  The section ends with her applying to various jobs around the area, avoiding serving jobs.

     The author write this section of the book very well.  She describes every event very clearly so the readers completely understand what is going on.  She does a good job of not portraying herself above anyone else that she comes in contact with; she treats herself as one of them.  This shows that she is taking this experiment seriously and trying to understand it from all perspectives.  She doesn't hold back any information, leaving the readers with little questions after reading.

Vocabulary. Section 2. Pages 30-59. Alex Webster

Alex Webster

Vocab Section 2

Leg irons page 30- Leg cuffs, for prisoners

Purloined page 32- Stolen

Minuscule page 32- Small

Sumptuary Law page 35- Law that keeps people in a certain social order

Ceviche page 35- A seafood dish, made from cooking fish in acid

Zins page 40- Alcoholic drinks

Akimbo page 47- Hands on hips

Entropy page 48- Confusion

Albinism page 51- Being white

Putative page 56- Is, considered to be

Graphic Organizer. Section 1. Pages 1-29. Kallie Thoreson

In this first section, Ehrenreich is setting us up to journey with her as she tries to see if she can make ends meet, as the truly poor attempt to do every day.  This illustration shows the rules, limits, and advantages she recognizes before she begins her work.  She tells her readers that all of the rules were broke at some point during her experience, but she tried her best to stick to them.  She acknowledges her limits because she wants to emphasize that she will try to live as the poor do up to a certain point.  Lastly, she lists the advantages she has to point out that this could potentially be much more difficult. 

Discussion Leader. Section 1. Pages 1-29. Kassi Bierman

1. How did you find the first section personally relatable to your own life? How does the author make this part relatable?
     She was very descriptive about her serving job; I myself was a server and I directly related to nearly everything she explained.  She writes in an easy, casual tone of voice that makes it simple to relate to her.  She explains her story well and doesn't put herself above her co-workers.  This makes the reader feel like she is at the same level as themselves, who may also be struggling with money. 


2. How do you think her story and struggles would be different if she had gotten the housekeeping job instead of the serving job?  Would it have been easier or harder? 
     I think it would have been easier because she would have had to deal less with people and she would avoid having the risk of people knowing what she was up too.  It also would have been easier because she would have a more steady paycheck and not relied on tips.  Something that would have been harder is with less human interaction she wouldn't get that extra angle of view from her experiment. 


3. She tries to make the experiment as accurate and realistic as possible, but how accurate do you think it actually is?
     I think it's fairly inaccurate because of how she starts off with her experiment.  First off, she has a well-working car as well as health insurance and other advantages.  She also had start-up money and a back-up emergency fund.  She leaves out a lot of aspects regarding this possible situation including have children, having poor health and other daily complications.

4. What do you think her overall goals are in conducting this experiment?
    I believe she has a few goals.  First, and most obvious, is to figure out weather it is in fact posible to live and support yourself off of minimum wage jobs.  With this, she wants to write her book to inform anyone who reads it of her findings; she wants the common population to understand all of these diffuculties.  Lastly, I feel that she may partly be doing this to prove it to herself that she can do this task without failing, as if she can prove that the current poor workers are doing something wrong.

Summarizer. Section 1. Pages 1-29. Alex Webster

Alex Webster

Nickeled and Dimed Circle # 1: Summarizer

            Barbara decides to find out what it is like to live on minimum wage in order to write about it. She tries to live as close to her rules, as to get the full sense of living on minimum wage as possible. She ends up breaking all of her rules a few times. She looks for housing in Key West, but finds it to be too expensive. She settles on a cabin 30 miles out of town. She then searches the help wanted of the paper. She applies for many jobs but can’t find one that will pay enough. She is steered away from housekeeping to waitressing because she is white. She becomes a waitress and after two weeks realizes that she can’t live on only one job. She then gets a second waiting job.

            She writes in the first person for this book. She introduces her “characters” and tells their back stories. At first her tone is of that she might be discovered because she is more educated. But she soon realizes to everyone else she is just another person. The language of this section was easy to follow and not difficult at all.

Vocabulary. Section 1. Pages 1-29. Brittney Nehring

Pg. 2 Neophyte: beginner, someone new to a skill or subject

Pg. 3 Toils: works hard and continuously, struggles

Pg. 7 Unencumbered: not weighed down or to not carry a burden

Pg. 8 Ineradicably: forever, permanently

Pg. 13 Onerous: time-consuming

Pg. 14 Surfeit: excess amount of something, surplus

Pg. 15 Chagrin: disappointment

Pg. 20 Agape: astonishment, wonder

Pg. 21 Svelte: slim, graceful

Pg. 26 Solipsism: indulgence of one’s feelings

Introduction to Nickel and Dimed

            Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich is the story about one woman’s experience of living on minimum wage. She is a college-educated writer who goes undercover as a low-income worker. She works one month at a time in three different locations working different jobs. Some of her jobs are waitress, housekeeper, dietary aid, and maid. She sets rules and limitations to keep her experiment as close to reality as possible. During this experiment Ehrenreich sets guidelines for herself.  One guideline is that she will not allow herself to starve or be without a home. We all thought this book would be interesting to read because we wanted to see how hard it would be to live on our own, with our current income.

Our Nickel and Dimed group is made up of four members.  All of the members of this group are Caucasian, freshmen college students from Wisconsin. Alex Webster is from Green Bay; he has worked for near minimum wage for 3 and half years at a grocery store. Kassi Bierman is from Janesville and has worked various jobs at a restaurant making near minimum wage.  Brittney Nehring is from Augusta, and has worked as a cashier at a grocery store for minimum wage. Kallie Thoreson is from Grantsburg and has earned near minimum wage as a teller in a credit union. We all have either worked for minimum wage or near minimum wage jobs so we can relate to the authors experience of continually working for minimum wage. Based on our previous experiences working at low wages, we understand that it would be difficult to actually live on that little of income. We never had to actually live on the wages we earned. We will be keeping a blog on our thoughts as we read through this great book.