putting food on the table
Supporting one's family
Putting food on the table means earning enough money to provide basic necessities for oneself or one's family.
The phrase emphasizes practical survival over abstract success: I'm not chasing dreams—I'm just putting food on the table.
It often carries overtones of modest, honest work done out of necessity rather than passion.
- incomeRegular monetary receipts
- bringing home the baconEarning the family's livelihood
- caregivingAttending to dependents
- wagesPayment for work
- hard workSustained strenuous effort
parenting · single parent · cooking · household management · food security · daily bread · grocery shopping · employment · family support · labor · farming · meal planning · responsibility · investments · nutrition · budgeting · making ends meet · cost of living
putting food on the tablegoing hungry
Experiencing prolonged food deprivation
poverty · destitution · financial ruin · breadline · bankruptcy
putting food on the tableliving large
Indulging in excess
wealth · opulence · extravagance · fine dining · affluence
putting food on the tableleisure
Free time for relaxation
idleness · unemployment · not working · loafing · freeloading
putter, putting, foodie, foodstuff, tables, tabled, tabulate, tableau