Learn English – similar English phrase for this Tamil proverb – “Lavish outside home yet starving inside of it”

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In Tamil, a south Indian language, there is a saying which roughly translates into English as:

Lavish outside home, starving inside of it.

Background :

This proverb has a mocking tone and indicates people who project themselves to be very rich and appear to spend lavishly on property and things, making their neighbors and the community around them envious of their stature. But in reality, whatever they are spending (or appear to spend) is because they have borrowed huge sums of money from other people and financial institutions. So much in fact that they are unable to feed their own family, probably skip a meal every day but when they step outside their home they try to appear posh and well-to-do.

Some close friends and relatives who know what's really going on with these people use this form of expression.


Generally, I tend to find equivalent English proverbs that have the same tonality and convey the meaning as is but this particular one has been eluding me for long. Any suggestions, even if they don't convey the entire meaning?

Best Answer

Not an exact match but you might consider keeping up appearances.

From dictionary.cambridge.org

to ​pretend to be ​happier, less ​poor, etc. than you really are, because you do not ​want ​people to ​know how ​bad ​your ​situation is: