Is there any idiom or expression in the English language that describes a situation in which the budget goes tight(er) and one becomes poor? In my mother tongue, they say "X happened and their bread gets thinner/smaller," implying on a situation in which the individuals should eat less as the result of economic hardship. Is there any phrase similar to this in the English language?
Idiom Requests – Idiom for Event Making One Poor or Poorer
idiom-requestsnon-native-english
Best Answer
I've heard the expression "water down the soup", as in "The budget is pretty tight this week so we'd better water down the soup." It implies trying to stretch your resources. Adding more water to a pot of soup will get you more servings, although they will be less filling and nutritious. It's along the same lines as "spreading the butter thinner" mentioned above.
When I do a search on the web for this expression, all I get are links to cooking sites. However, there are various historical references to people watering down soup or making soup out of otherwise non-food ingredients in order to try to survive famine conditions, such as the French Army during Napoleon's retreat from Russia, so that might be a possible origin.