on the breadline

alternative below the breadline

1. idiomaticIn a situation of extreme poverty; relying on food donations or having only enough to survive.

   Britain survived on the breadline.

   1998, Keith Laybourn, Britain on the breadline: A social and political history of Britain 1918-1939, Gloucestershire: Sutton, →ISBN, →OCLC, →ISBN

   5 more examples

   She wasn't on the breadline exactly, but she didn't have an awful lot of spare cash to throw around, and she always, always lived within her means.

   2021 February 25, Lilac Mills, Sunset on the Square: Escape on a Spanish Holiday with this Heartwarming Love Story, London: Canelo, →ISBN, →OCLC, →ISBN

   This life continuously trapped on the breadline was not what I wanted, not forever.

   2012 March 17, Russell M. Nash, Yellow Fever: An Englishman Falls Under the Spell of the Far East, Memoirs Publishing, →ISBN, →ISBN

   He was wearing a grubby white shirt, jeans and scuffed black slip-on shoes. Anyone would think he was on the breadline too.

   2014 January 16, Veronica Henry, Love on the Rocks, London: Orion, →ISBN, →OCLC, →ISBN

   With capital of about £16,000 I wasn't exactly on the breadline.

   2015, J. R. L. Anderson, Death on the Rocks: A Classic English Murder Mystery, London: Bonnier Publishing Fiction, →ISBN, →OCLC, →ISBN

   There were times where money was tight and we probably were on the breadline, but I still never really wanted for anything.

   2012 September 20, Kevin Twaddle, Life on the Line: How to Lose a Million and So Much More, Edinburgh: Black & White Publishing, →ISBN, →OCLC, →ISBN