Nickel and Dimed Ch.1

In chapter one she decides to start her experiment in Key West Florida where she lives. She was worried from going from consumer to worker in the same place. Her first mission was to find a place to live where she could afford it at a 7$ an hour wage. Which meant she had to find a place at 500$ or cheaper per month. It was harder to do in Key West because there wasnt much cheap living to choose from. She then figured out that doing this experiment what she thought was trailor trash was something she had to dream about with her wages. She bought her a place 30 miles from town and then she had to start looking for a job. She went and interveiwed for many jobs. She first found a job as a waitress in a hole in the wall place called the Hearthside. She worked there for awhile at 2.43 an hour plus tips from 2pm till 10pm. She didnt much care for the foul mouthed people she worked with. She after working for a couple weeks realized that it was not manageable to live with just one job. So she got a second job as a housekeeper. She worked that job for 4 hours in the morning then straight to the waitressing after that. It was all at the same building therefore it wasnt too rough to do the traveling. She was not enjoying her job as a server because not even 1/3 of her job was serving. Most of her work was side work that her manager gave her. She was talking to Gail a women she worked with about living space and the woman was about to start living in a days inn and Gail was complaining about not being able to have 500$ to put down on a deposit for a apartment plus the first months rent of 500$. Then the author realized that having a starting point is everything in this life style. The 1300$ she had gave herself to start with set her off with a decent start. A better start then the people who actually live in this poverty have. The author then found out the harshness of healthcare in this feild of work. "none'. The company health plan is supposed to kick in after 3 months but then what happeed to Gail was the company said they lost her employment paperwork. On her last day of work at Jerrys she had completely blown up. There was 4 tables all hers and one was a group of 10 british men and the other tables were whiny people. They all had something wrong with their dishes or their drinks and kept sending them back. Then a customer went back into the kitchen and the Author had had enough. She just walked out. And she loved that she was allowed to do so. No one could tell her that she couldnt. That was what had seemed to be her best experience of the whole thing, was that she could walk out and leave without anyone stopping her. When she moved out of the trailor park she gave her key to her friend Gail and the deposit so Gail could move in there. And she was gone. And done with her first experience in poverty.