At the outset of undertaking her project, Ehrenreich sets about creating "certain rules and parameters." What are her rules? What resources does she allow herself that the working poor might not have?

Ehrenreich details the parameters she set for her endeavor. First off, three rules: she was not allowed to fall back on skills derived from her usual work; she must take the highest-paying job offered to her and do her best to hold it; she must accept the cheapest housing she could find. The problem is that she wound up, by her own admission, breaking all three of these rules in one way or another. I believe she had a car which others in her "situation" might not have had.