tighten one's belt
Cut back spending
To tighten one's belt is to reduce spending or live more frugally, typically in response to financial hardship: With the recession looming, everyone had to tighten their belts.
The image is of cinching a belt tighter when there's less food to eat—less belly requiring less slack.
- savingReserving for future use
- budgetingAllocating funds systematically
- live within meansSpend only what's affordable
- economizingReducing expenditures deliberately
- adjustmentAlteration to improve fit
poverty · thriftiness · scrimp and save · resourcefulness · cut corners · recession · austerity · self-discipline · sacrifice · penny-pinching · pinch pennies · stretch a dollar · ingenuity · recalibration · minimalism · prioritization · unemployment · cost-cutting
tighten one's beltsplurge
Spend freely, impulsively
live large · live it up · throw money around · spare no expense · loosen the purse strings
tighten, tight, tightly, tightness, tighter, tightest, tightening, belt, belts