scratch a living
strapped for money
strapped for cash
cash-starved
underlive
primary poverty
penniless
scrape by
underearn
wealthless
subsistence level
scuffle
red cent
impecunity
low water
ramen profitable
poor
dime
princely sum
obolary
shoe string
oofless
shoestring
budget
farthingless
underearner
subsist
slim pickings
moneyless
chicken feed
starvation wage
drab
secondary poverty
microeconomy
pennies on the dollar
in need
cut one's coat according to one's cloth
two pennies to rub together
flotsam and jetsam
dollarless
wage slavery
nonaffluence
microbudget
hand to mouth
not have a bean
poormouth
pennies
arm
pauperism
thrift
pittance payment
have-not
incomelessness
pauper
pauperage
penny-wise
undernourishment
Franklinize
cent
pay the rent
privation
loose change
emptyhandedness
nonearner
paltry
on the breadline
JAM
tighten one's belt
Lazarus layer
nouveau pauvre
passive income
peanuts
scarceness
bludge
in the bucket
broke
have-a-little
licence to print money
self-depreciation
Micawber threshold
undermoneyed
poverty is a state of mind
wooden nickel
driblet
fail at life
impoverish
unpossessing
hog train
whip the cat
destitute
undersave
tapped out
underpopulated
underresourced
underpaid
unmoneyed