Save for a rainy day means to put money aside in case something bad happens: an illness, losing your job or a car breakdown. The rainy day stands for a time of trouble. The expression is informal, but you will hear it both in everyday life and in financial advice; in an essay, build up savings for emergencies sounds more neutral.
When would you say save for a rainy day?
Write a sentence — we'll check that the expression fits the situation and suggest what to fix.
The check is taking longer than usual. Your feedback will appear here automatically.
save (money) + for a rainy day; put/set + something + aside for a rainy day
- Every month I save a little of my salary for a rainy day.
- My grandmother always kept some cash in a drawer for a rainy day.
- Freelancers should save for a rainy day, because work can disappear overnight.
What changed
First versionI always save some money for a black day.
RevisionI always save some money for a rainy day.
In English, a black day is a day when something bad happened: a black day for the company. It is not used for money kept for hard times. The idiom uses a rainy day, so only black was changed to rainy.
The idiom gave rise to the phrase a rainy day fund, a separate pot of money for unexpected costs, a financial safety net: We keep three months' salary in a rainy day fund. In its literal sense, a rainy day is simply a day when it rains: We spent a rainy day in the museum.
Your turn
Don't spend your whole bonus on a holiday: ___ in case something goes wrong.
Show the answer
save some for a rainy day — The advice not to spend the whole bonus and the words in case something goes wrong both point to keeping money for hard times, so the answer is save some for a rainy day. Live for today means to enjoy the present and not think about the future, which contradicts the first part of the advice.
Write about how you put money aside for unexpected situations. Say what part of your income you save and where you keep the money.
I save about ten percent of my salary for a rainy day and keep it in a separate savings account.
Learn to use new words without mistakes
Write phrases with the words you are learning. LetsWords shows mistakes in usage and grammar, suggests corrections and explains them, and review helps the words stick.