I am wondering if there's an idiom that means that you are making barely enough money to live. Sometimes, I want to tell my co-workers that I am having a hard time with money, but I don't know how to say it well. Is there an idiom for that?
2 Answers
There are many:
They are barely scraping by.
They are barely getting by.
They eke out a life for themselves.
They are barely making ends meet.
They are living hand-to-mouth.
Related, colorful expressions for any trying circumstance:
They are hanging on by their fingernails.
They manage to keep going by the skin of their teeth.
They are living on a wing and a prayer.
Plus many others. I'll add more as I think of them.
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1Excellent list. I'd say that scraping by, getting by, and making ends meet are the most common I've seen/heard used. May 1, 2019 at 18:30
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2Living paycheck to paycheck, which means, in addition to barely making enough money, that you have little or no savings and need your next paycheck to pay the bills. May 2, 2019 at 2:00
The one I know is to be hard up.
According to Cambridge Dictionary:
hard up (adjective) - having very little money: We're a bit hard up at the moment so we're not thinking about holidays.
answered May 1, 2019 at 18:32
