live paycheck to paycheck

present singular third person lives paycheck to paycheck · participle present living paycheck to paycheck · participle past lived paycheck to paycheck · past lived paycheck to paycheck · alternative live paycheque to paycheque · alternative live from paycheck to paycheck

1. USidiomaticTo have the entirety of one's earnings consumed by living expenses, thus having nothing left over to save; to make just enough (money, etc.) to survive; to scratch by.

   Nearly two-thirds of the women who responded to a working woman survey last year cited living from paycheck to paycheck as their most pressing financial concern.

   1995, Working Woman, volume 20, New York, N.Y.: MacDonald Communications Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 40

   3 more examples

   But what does all this mean for the men and women who live from paycheck to paycheck? Prices have skyrocketed to boost the cost of living for the worker to about double the pre-war level.

   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

   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 family lives paycheck to paycheck and can't put anything away for savings.

   1954, Dissent, New York, N.Y.: Dissent Publishing Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 38, column 2

   There was a low-income individual in class who never had any savings. He lived 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.'

   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), page 83