paying the rent and eating enough

Hi there, I am still reading and blogging about this book "Nickel and Dimed" (see previous posts)
Her first city is Key West, Florida. I don't live in Florida and I have no idea what rents cost in the city of Key West. I do live in the Midwest, and I checked into rents in our area.
Her experience was that rents began at $400 and went up, and that a $500 efficiency apartment was about the best that she could find and still feel safe in the city. Now, where we live, there are less desirable neighborhoods, but none that I would consider unsafe. Her numbers are from ten years ago. Mine are from today. I could get a decent size one bedroom downstairs apartment for $325 including utilities, in a fair neighborhood (three blocks from the downtown business district - walking distance to all necessities) in a town of about 12,000 people. There were cheaper places in the smaller towns nearby with less amenities, and they weren't much cheaper, and there were much more expensive options as well, all the way up to $1600 per month four bedroom, three bath mansion on the lake.
Now, fifteen years ago, when I was a college student, and had to live in a college town where prices are much higher; I paid $350 for a one bedroom basement apartment plus utilities, not a great neighborhood, but still safe.
All of the places I've lived required first months rent and deposit. In college, when I had spent more on tuition and books and other expenses than expected, I didn't give up, and go home; I asked a friend for a place to stay(again when you are living a life for more than thirty days, you make friends that trust you and can be trusted by you). I slept on the floor of her apartment for one month so that I could save up the money for rent and deposit. NOTE: this was not a 'legal' arrangement, the complex she lived in did not allow an extra person or allow subletting. The situation did work out, but it might not have if things had gone differently.
There may be more opportunities in bigger cities, but minimum wage is the same whether the town has 2000 people for two million, and you'll still probably find a grocery store, gas station, and a few fast food joints.
Personally, except for my university campus experience, I have pretty much always lived in a small town and always been able to find a job when I wanted one. Also, and I made this point earlier, the more experience I obtained over the years, better the jobs I was able to obtain, regardless of the size of the city.
However, I realize as a writer, her story is more compelling if she writes about life in large cities, since more people are living in them.

Getting enough to eat. She is open in the beginning that she will not go hungry; that if she can not afford food, then she would pull out the ATM card from her other life and cheat on the experiment. Her first job is as a waitress, every restaurant that I ever worked for, whether fast food or fine dining offered significant discounts on food, often free. Working a closing shift in particular allowed for not only sufficient dinner fare, but also "leftovers' to take home and warm up the next day.
Again, the issues she faces in her first city come from the "thirty day" rule of her experiment. She discusses not having any kind of cooking appliances or kitchen utensils when she first starts out. When I was sixteen years old, I was already thinking about my housing needs, and bought my first microwave at a yard sale for $1 this was many years ago, but yard sale prices change much slower than retail prices. I bought a new coffee maker last weekend for $1. I guess not every town has yard sales, and maybe you can't get away on a weekend morning to catch them, but there are estate auctions, thrift shops, resale stores, etc, that also offered extraordinary discounts on household necessities.
Working in a restaurant; closing shifts particularly allowed for not only sufficient dinner fare, but also 'leftovers' to take home and warm up the next day. When I was in college and working at a fast food place, I always volunteered for the closing shift (other students wanted to be out in time to go to parties, so these were often hard for management to fill). I never bought groceries, and always had plenty to eat. If I had two days off in a row, I did splurge and purchased food at the 1/2 off prices offered where I worked (food was free on days that you worked, but 50% on days off). Plus, if I was in the store and they were unexpectedly busy or if someone called in sick or didn't show up, I'd be the first to get the opportunity at an extra shift, and sometimes this even meant overtime pay, which certainly covered the few dollars I'd spent on food.
Where we live, and I think these are available in larger cities also, there are food pantries and churches that serve meals. I didn't know about these when I was in the city, but if I had, I would have taken advantage of them. If you don't feel comfortable just taking food for free, they do take donations, and after you show up for awhile and get to know the people, there are often volunteer opportunities for you to earn your meal. (Again, this usually takes more than thirty days).