live paycheck to paycheck

Language: en

Meaning: (US,idiomatic)To have theentiretyof what oneearnsconsumedbylivingexpenses, thus having nothing left over tosave; make just enough (money, etc.) tosurvive; toscratch by.1948, George Morris,How to Make Your Vote Count: The Communist Position on the Issues and Candidates in the 1948 Elections, New York, N.Y.: New Century Publishers,→OCLC, page 4:But what does all this mean for the men and women wholive from paycheck to paycheck? Prices have skyrocketed to boost the cost of living for the worker to about double the pre-war level.1954,Dissent, New York, N.Y.: Dissent Publishing Corporation,→ISSN,→OCLC, page38, column 2:Hector, who has worked at the Miramar since he arrived from Mexico ten years ago, would like to own his own home someday. "It's my dream," he says. But he can't imagine how he'll ever get there when his familylives paycheck to paycheckand can't put anything away for savings.1995,Working Woman, volume20, New York, N.Y.: MacDonald Communications Corporation,→ISSN,→OCLC, page40:Nearly two-thirds of the women who responded to a working woman survey last year citedliving from paycheck to paycheckas their most pressing financial concern.2006, Alicia Korten, Karen Dietz, “Who Said Money is Everything? Story is the New Currency in Financial Management”, in Lori L. Silverman,Wake me Up when the Data is Over: How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results, San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass,John Wiley & Sons,→ISBN, part 1 (How Organizations are Using Stories in Day-to-day Operations),page83:There was a low-income individual in class who never had any savings. Helived paycheck-to-paycheck. [After hearing the story], he said to them, 'You've inspired me. I've always had cable and decided to give it up. For the first time I have money in my savings account.'

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