Nickel and Dimed
Chapter 2

In chapter 2 Barbra goes to Maine to find another job. She begins by picking up her rent a wreck and trying to find a new job maybe as a convenience store clerk or at a shopping mall. She finds a place at a hotel 6. She will stay there until she finds a cheaper place. She finally found a place called blue haven motel with a price of 59$ a day.

Now to find a job. She applies to many jobs including goodwill where the pay is 7$ an hour. She also applies at Wall-Mart where she takes a personality test. She says that these tests are pointless because the answers are obvious. But the employer says that they can tell a lot about potential employees. She thinks that these tests are made to convey information to the employee.

After she applies to many jobs she finally gets a call from two different employers and she takes the jobs automatically. The jobs are a nursing home that wants her to work weekends starting the next day. The other job is a cleaning service called the Maids. The Maids tell her that she has passed the Accutrac test and she can start Monday.

She works at both places for a while she tells about how old people are not much fun to work with and she also tells about how her cleaning is not really cleaning. She admits that when she cleans she pretty much is taking dirt from somewhere and putting it in another place.

After a while she makes friends with most of her co-workers. Most of the Maids are Hispanic. Just like the jobs at Key West she begins to get into the groove of sleeping eating working. She takes pride in everything she buys. When she takes a shower she says to herself this is my water, I paid for it with my money.

While walking to her car one of Barbra’s co workers named Holy trips and falls. She starts screaming “it snapped I heard it snap”! Barbra suggests that she should go to the ER and get an X-ray. But Holy said that she did not want to miss work.

In the end Barbra quits because her trust has been lost with her employees. So she moves on and continues her story.

Nickel and Dimed first chapter

Nickel and Dimed

In the introduction of Nickel and Dimed Barbra is talking to the editor of Harper’s at lunch. She tells him that she thinks that someone should go into the working force and find out how it’s like to work and live on minimum wage. When the editor says that she should do it she is a little bit weary but eventually she agrees to it. She begins be stating the rules and limitations she will set for herself. On of these limitations is that she will always take the highest paying job and the lowest rent. Of coarse the home needs to be safe. Other rules she gave herself is that she will always have a car and she will not starve her self. She will have a credit card when she needs it for emergencies. Also she gives herself $1,300 to start. She does not want to change her identity a lot so she will only fake her education. She will also dress the same as she has always have.

The first thing she needs to do is to find a place to live. She has a budget and she can only afford $500 of rent a month. She finds a place along a highway that is like a cabin. It is Forty five minutes from Key West. Now she needs to find a job.

The first place she begins is in Florida close to where she lives. She begins her search in a suburb of Key West Florida. She starts by picking out a newspaper and reading the want ads. She applies to about twenty different jobs including many housekeeping jobs grocery store and even Wendy’s. None of these places ever call her back.

She finally finds a restaurant called “Hearthside”. For two weeks she works from 2:00 till 10pm for $2.43 an hour plus tips. On her first day she meets a lady named Gail. She teaches Barbra all the tasks and routines. While she is working there she starts to recognize the regulars and begins to get into the flow of waitressing at Hearthside. After work she retires to her house and takes notes on her day and then watches T.V. Until 1:00am. And then she is back doing the same thing in the morning.

After a while working at hearthside she decide to find another job. Jerry’s is her next job which a little different than hearthside. It is a very busy place always full of people While she is there she meets a Czech dishwasher named George. He does not speak much English and he. One day he gets blamed for stealing out of the cooler. Barbra is wondering why she did not stand up for him. He stole the food because he was hungry.