Nickel and Dimed–Book Review

Full title is Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

ISBN 0-8050-6389-7
Published by Owl Books.

This is a book that had been sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read. I'm glad that I got around to it. It's very eye opening, even for a person like myself that has always lived well below the poverty line. Read my full review below.


Barbara was taken to lunch by her publisher, where he told her the book he wanted her to write.
She was to go out and see if it was possible to live on just $6 or $7 an hour. This was the time of the welfare reform.
She spent 2 years doing her research and getting the book written….1999 and 2000.

Although the research was done that many years ago, this book is a must read to understand what goes on in the lives of those living in poverty.

Barbara was given around $1500 to start with for each place she went to. She traveled from Florida, to Maine, to Minnesota. She held jobs such as a waitress, nursing home aide, hotel maid and house cleaner and even a Walmart employee.
Each time though, she was unable to make it on the wages she was earning.
She was able to pay for deposit and 2 months rent with her upfront money, but it never failed that by at the end of those 2 months she had not been able to save up enough money to pay a 3rd months rent. Sometimes she had a really hard time even finding a place she could afford to get in to. She had to take very inadequate living circumstances.

She was doing this as a single person, not as a person with family and couldn’t do it! Along the way she talks with her co-workers and learn how they are making it (or not making it). Some live in their cars…some with relatives…some with a boyfriend or girlfriend……
They don’t have insurance. Their lunch consists of just a bag of Doritos.

My favorite section was when she worked for Merry Maids. She describes in detail the cleaning of the wealthy home owners. She also describes what she is doing in detail.  What got to her the most about the job was cleaning a home of her own and her appreciation of what she has.

Whether you are among the living poor, or you have plenty of money to live on, I highly recommend reading this book.
Even though this is a true stories book, it is very intriguing. You won’t want to put it down as you will want to find out where her travels and research take her next and just what goes on in her quest for survival.

There are also lots of statistics throughout the book. Although the statistics are from 1999 and 2000, I don’t think they will have changed much from then until now. The back of the book also includes a reading group guide.

Frugal Friday Link Up--Living Below the Line $1.50 a Day Challenge

I want to continue this week talking about the Living Below the Line challenge I am taking part in.
I am taking part in this as a bzz campaign with bzzagent.com.

 I've ran across a lot of "nay-sayers" this past week.  Not only in comments on my own postings about what I am eating, but the postings of others as well.

We are hearing things like--3rd world countries are eating beans and rice
Most don't have access to grocery stores, let alone sales and the use of coupons
The usual people commenting on losing weight, not getting near enough to eat, nutrition isn't good.
One person really got in to it commenting that this challenge isn't teaching anyone anything (and she is taking part in the challenge)  I can't go in to details on her comments without quoting her, which I do not have permission to do.

Others are very supportive telling us we are doing a great job.  

Here are my posts on gather if you would like to read about my journey and what I have eaten.  I will come back and link up the post I do tonight once I get it done.

Live Below the Line Challenge--I'm In, Are You Up To It? (bzz campaign)


Living Below the Line $1.50 a Day Challenge Day 1

Living Below the Line $1.50 a Day Challenge Day 2 

Living Below the Line $1.50 a Day Challenge Day 3 

Living Below the Line $1.50 a Day Challenge Day 4 

Living Below the Line $1.50 a Day Challenge Day 5


I am supporting the Global Poverty Project and you can find my page here: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/marsha32
So far I've not helped by raising any money  :(   I do hope that my postings have at least opened the eyes of some.

My husband and I have had a hard time keeping food in the house....or so we thought until this challenge.  In other words, we always have food, it's just not what we are hungry for, so we moan and groan about it.
Even though my husband and daughter didn't take part in the challenge with me, they have watched me and been supportive.

It takes a lot of time and effort to take what something costs, divide it out by ounces or servings and know a cost.  Take the Kool-Aid for example.  Now, I say Kool-Aid, but I am using the store brand.  I had to add the packet cost in with the cost of the sugar.  The sugar was on the package as servings by the teaspoon.  Boy wasn't that figuring fun  LOL
On that note, I would also like to add that I was asked if I was adding in the cost of the water for my tea and Kool-Aid.  The answer is no.  I would have no way of knowing what we pay the water company for each cup of water!

I posted about the challenge here in my Frugal Friday post last week.  I talked about how milk was on sale for $2 a gallon.  What a blessing that we stocked up somewhat so I could drink more of it.   Double blessings came Friday evening when my hubby called me from the store.  He was so excited to find half gallons of milk on a manager's special for just .50 each!!  He brought home 6 to make sure I had enough for the challenge.  This extra special price did afford me the luxury of a glass of milk with supper most nights too.

Also, eggs were on sale for $1 a dozen so he bought 2 dozen to make sure I had enough.  And, they had the 1 pound packages of potato salad and macaroni salad on sale for just $1.  He went a little overboard on those buying 5 packages of each!  We have some left for our Mother's Day dinner.

Could I have accomplished this challenge without using sale prices and coupons?  Probably so, but I would have been suffering through eating Ramen noodles every day.  I barely got myself to eat one package this week, half at a time.  I would have had very little else during the day.  

I want to mention that in our house we have a lot of food that didn't cost us anything.  I could have well used any of those foods and eaten 3 or 4 times more than what I did.  These are foods such as beans, rice, pasta, canned soup, etc that over time I have gotten from government commodities.   I also had made a trip to the local food bank recently and we still had some of that food left. (yeah, we had no meat whatsoever so I went to the food bank---of course the income tax refund came in the very next day.....and we did a shopping whopping stock up trip to Aldi)   I felt a little on the bad side using sale prices and coupons and didn't want to try to throw in things that I got free on top of those.   I shouldn't feel bad though!  If it weren't for sales and coupons we wouldn't eat near as much or as well as we do.

On that note, I would like to mention just yesterday, what a blessing of food we had!!  In the mail I rec'd 2 free coupons for any Gorton's seafood items.  I won those in a blog giveaway.  (I used one this morning for a 30 count bag of crunchy fish fillets that cost $10.97!) Later in the day the Fed Ex truck stopped with a package for me.  Inside I found a box of Honey Bunches of Oats cereal from PurexInsiders.  Along with that came 5 free coupons for more boxes.  I will be using one of those for us and giving the other 4 away here on my blog.
I was accepted at crowdtap for the McCormick Grill Mates party and will be receiving a box of marinades, bbq sauce etc.  I am signed up with bzzagent for the campaign on pork and will be receiving coupons to buy pork.  I just signed up for another bzzagent campaign for Private Selections.  With it we will get free coupons to get a bag of chips, a box of Angus Burgers, a pie, and ice cream.  (there's one whole meal totally taken care of!)    Am I counting my blessings?  YES!!

I think I have rambled enough here to call it a book, so will close for now.   I hope I have enlightened some on what it's like to try to eat on so little....as well as the blessings.   Please link up anything frugal you have to share in the linky this week.  I've not had much participation with the linky but would love to see it start to grow.  Inspire us all to live the simple and frugal life.

Disclosure:  I received a product sample, coupon, collateral or other special premium from BzzAgent. 

Frugal Friday Link Up---Live Below the Line Challenge

For this Frugal Friday I want to talk about the Live Below the Line Challenge.
I am taking part in it through bzzagent.com.
The challenge starts Monday, May 7 and goes through Friday, May 11.

Live Below the Line is a campaign that challenges individuals and communities to eat and drink on just $1.50 per day for 5 days. By exposing participants to a glimpse of some of the daily difficulties experienced by the 1.4 billion people who live in extreme poverty every day, for everything, the campaign provides a unique window into understanding the realities of life for so many.

I feel up to the challenge!  (that might change after a couple of days).  It's fitting for me to post this for Frugal Friday.  How else would you eat and drink on just $1.50 a day if you aren't frugal?


I do feel as I will be cheating somewhat though.   I have my plans made.  I have bought foods and drinks on sale, and many times also with a coupon.


I bought a lot of my foods at Aldi.  Therefore each package of Ramen noodles is just .166 each.    A 2 lb bag of carrots just .99  (I haven't figured out yet how much 1 carrot is but will).
I was able to buy 2 boxes of Barilla whole wheat pasta for .38 each after coupon.  Milk was on sale for just $2 a gallon so I stocked up ahead to have it for that price next week.  Eggs are on sale for just $1 a dozen!


I will be posting what I eat and drink each evening over on gather.com.  Next Friday I plan to place those days here on my blog as well.


Do you think you are up to the challenge??  If you don't think you can live off $1.50 a day yourself, pass on the information and the Live Below the Line website to friends and family who you think will be up for it. Be sure to tell them to choose the BzzAgent network from the drop down menu on the Live Below the Line sign-up page so we know your Bzz is working!

I encourage you to please visit my profile page for the challenge as well.  It will open in a new window.  I am supporting The Global Poverty Project.
https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/marsha32


Thanks so much for reading, please do leave me your thoughts.....and don't forget to link up below.  Linky remains open all week.