Nickel-And-Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America by Barbara Ehrenreich

As a member of the lower-middle class Barbara Ehrenreich has learned to survive and has found out many tips from her co-workers about how to live on a low income budget. At first, she was paying way over her pay limit for a less than desirable lifestyle. At that time she aspired to be "trailer trash" because even that seemed unattainable. She finally moved to a decent home forty five minutes from the Key West area in which she worked. Finally the rent and bills she had to pay were not over the amount that she made in a pay period. In a month, she now was making around $1,040.00 dollars. With this money she spent almost half on food, toiletries, utilities, and other things. With her remaining money she was able to buy her required work cloths, prescriptions, and vitamins to make up for not have many vegetables in her diet.

In this story, the reader can see what it's like in a different world than their own, or their world through an others eyes. The fact that the writer was almost unable to provide herself with the necessities of life is a sad but very true fact of some in America today. In the end, Ehrenreich found that she could function with not much money, and still live the life that she wanted too.