Live from hand to mouth means to have only just enough money for basic needs, with nothing left over. All the money goes straight on food and housing, and saving anything is impossible. The expression works both in conversation and in essays about poverty; people often drop from: live hand to mouth.
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live (from) hand to mouth; a hand-to-mouth existence
- As a student, I lived from hand to mouth and never had money for holidays.
- Many freelancers live hand to mouth because their income changes every month.
- After years of a hand-to-mouth existence, she finally found a job with a regular salary.
What changed
First versionAfter paying the rent, we live from salary to salary.
RevisionAfter paying the rent, we live from hand to mouth.
From salary to salary may sound logical, but English speakers don't say it. The correct idiom is live from hand to mouth, and in American English there is also live paycheck to paycheck.
Make ends meet means just about managing to pay for what you need within your budget. Live from hand to mouth stresses that there is no reserve at all: everything you earn goes straight on essentials. We manage to make ends meet, but we live hand to mouth and have no savings.
Your turn
Before she got a full-time contract, Maria lived ___, spending every penny on rent and food.
Show the answer
from hand to mouth — Before her full-time contract, Maria spent everything on rent and food and saved nothing, so she had only just enough: from hand to mouth. From rags to riches describes going from poverty to wealth, but at that time Maria barely had enough for the basics.
Write about a time when you or someone you know barely had enough money. Say when it was and what most of the money went on.
During my first year in Moscow, I lived from hand to mouth because most of my salary went on rent.
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