30 Days on Minimum Wage By Adam Geibel

1. I felt that Morgan and Alex did a good job budgeting their money despite all the problems they had. They saved every penny they could in the week by doing the little things. For example Alex would walk to her job, the two ate beans and rice for a week, and they went to a second hand store to get things for their apartment. Doing these things enabled them to go out on Alex's birthday and take the kids out to the movies. But, these pleasures were also things that they didn't have to have, and because they spent their money doing these activities and on top of it, went to the emergency room, they were in debt within a couple of weeks. Doing these things are for sure fun, but when you are working on minimum wage it might be a better idea to save up some money for things like paying rent and buying groceries. If Alex and Morgan made it to their second month they wouldn't have been able to pay their rent because they spent all their money on personal pleasures. During their few weeks of being on minimum wage, Morgan and Alex were living to work, instead of working to live. It is all about personal choice if you ever get paid that little, you can either spend your money to put you in risk for being in debt or save all your money and stay out of debt.

9 . When Morgan and Alex walked in to the Salvation Army-like store, Alex was overrun with emotion. She saw all of these people working and giving to people that were less fortunate. She realized that these people were now working for her. I don't think it had struck her how poor they were and going into this store was really shocking for her. Alex, being a very successful lady with a very successful husband had never been exposed to this type of living. She started crying because she finally could see how people of the lower class lived and how much they have to suffer day-in day-out.  She also found out how kind people are. The volunteers working at the store would give their things for free, just out of the kindness of their heart. The minute she found out she couldn’t just get anything that she wanted, she changed. She was really opened to a whole new world she had never been exposed to before causing her to become overrun with emotions. This experience for both Alex and Morgan I'm sure really humbled them, because looking in from the outside is one thing but actually experiencing it is another.