adverbial phrase · neutral
living paycheck to paycheck
/ˈlɪvɪŋ ˈpeɪtʃek tə ˈpeɪtʃek/LIV·ing PAY·check to PAY·check
spending all or most of your income so that you have little or no savings between paydays
Examples
“Many families are living paycheck to paycheck despite both parents working full time.”
“Being forced to live paycheck to paycheck increases stress and reduces financial resilience.”
“Lockdowns pushed more households into living paycheck to paycheck.”
Band 8 sentence
“A volatile job market and stagnating wages have left a significant portion of the population living paycheck to paycheck.”
Collocations
- live/living paycheck to paycheck
- fall into living paycheck to paycheck
Word family
Common mistakes
live from paycheck to paycheck→live/living paycheck to paycheck
living pay check to pay check→living paycheck to paycheck
Say it for a higher band
5live hand to mouth→6be on a tight budget→7+living paycheck to paycheck
Synonyms
live hand to mouth
Easily confused
live hand to mouth
“After losing his second job, he was living hand to mouth for months.”
Related words
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In Shopping & Money
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