Money and food

Here’s a list of popular expressions used to talk about

earning money. They are all related to food.

Bring home the bacon

To earn money for the family:

■ Musicians are finding it harder and harder to bring

home the bacon. Too many people want music for free.

Chicken feed

A tiny amount of money. If you think about how much a

chicken eats, you’ll understand this idiom:

■ Two million in bonuses? That’s chicken feed for many

bankers.

Dough

Informal expression for “money”. It’s also a mixture that

is the basis of bread:

■ How much dough did you get?

Earn one’s daily bread

To make money to buy the things you need to live:

■ I’m not sure how he earns his daily bread, but it can’t

be legal.

Gravy train

If someone is “on the gravy train”, that person is earning

a lot of money very easily. The origin of this expression

is unknown:

■ He says he wants a job at the BBC. I think he sees it

as a gravy train.

Nest egg

A sum of money that you save for the future:

■ This job is very well paid. I’ve managed to build up a

nice little nest egg.

Our bread and butter

This expression refers to how someone mainly earns their

money:

■ Our band plays at all sorts of private parties, but weddings

are our bread and butter.

Pay sb. peanuts

To pay someone only a very small amount of money:

■ We worked hard and then they paid us peanuts. ■

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