shoestring

To live within a very tight or limited financial budget. We were living on a shoestring for a while after our baby was born, but, luckily, I got a promotion, and our situation has improved a bit.

A budget or allotment of resources that is very meager, sparse, or just enough to suit its purpose. Unfortunately, due to government cutbacks following the recession, our department has had to produce the same levels of work on a shoestring budget. I did all sorts of traveling with just a shoestring budget when I was in college. You learn very quickly how to make the most of what you have!

Fig. with a very small amount of money. We lived on a shoestring for years before I got a good-paying job. John traveled to Florida on a shoestring.

by using very little money The theater company operates on a shoestring.

if you do something on a shoestring, you do it using very little money The restaurant is run on a shoestring, so we can't afford to take on any more staff.

With very limited financial means, as in The newlyweds were living on a shoestring. The precise allusion in this term is unclear. One fanciful theory is that debtors in British prisons would lower a shoe by its laces from a window so as to collect funds from visitors or passers-by. A more likely theory is that it alludes to the slender shape of a shoelace, likening it to slender resources. [Late 1800s]