Dictionary

live paycheck to paycheck en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /lɪv ˈpeɪtʃɛk tə ˈpeɪtʃɛk/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

A reference to a person fully expending the entire earnings of their paycheck and not having anything left prior to receiving their next paycheck.

Meanings

1. (US, idiomatic) To 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.
   • 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:
   • 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:
   • 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:

Forms

Relateds

hand-to-mouth · make ends meet · get by

Translations (11)

ru жить от зарпла́ты до зарпла́ты (to spend all that one earns without saving anything) · hu alig jön ki a fizetéséből (to spend all that one earns without saving anything) · es vivir al día (to spend all that one earns without saving anything) · pl żyć od pierwszego do pierwszego (to spend all that one earns without saving anything) · cs žít z ruky do úst (to spend all that one earns without saving anything) · hu hónapról hónapra él (to spend all that one earns without saving anything) · de von der Hand in den Mund leben (to spend all that one earns without saving anything) · de sich von Monat zu Monat durchschlagen (to spend all that one earns without saving anything) · es vivir de cheque en cheque (to spend all that one earns without saving anything) · fi elää kädestä suuhun (to spend all that one earns without saving anything) · cs žít z ruky do huby (to spend all that one earns without saving anything)