Hello and welcome to today's English lesson my name is Stuart in today's
lesson we're looking at some finance idioms let's go to the intro now as I
said today's lesson is looking at finance idioms and we have one two three
four five six seven finance idioms that we use in English to talk
about situations where we don't have a lot of money
okay so finance idioms when we don't have a lot of money now there are other
idioms that we can use when we have a lot of money but these ones are normally
when we are struggling to make cash when perhaps we've lost our job perhaps we
can't find a good job and we're struggling so these are idioms that we
can use in that situation now some of them may be familiar to you some of them
may not and all of these idioms are necessary if you want to take your
English to the next level for the advance the proficiency levels of
English the the b-2s the C ones the C twos these idioms need to be known so
we'll look at the first one which is to make ends meet to make ends meet and to
make ends meet means that you are able to more or less comfortably get to the
end of the month on your salary you don't have to borrow money from somebody
else your salary is adequate let's have a look at the example I had to take a
pay cut and now I find it hard to make ends meet so because my salary was
reduced because my pay was reduced I find it difficult now to make ends meet
I don't have a lot of money it's hard for me to get from pay packet to pay
packet okay it's not easy because I took a pay cut
there we go that's the problem the next one is down and out
down and out now more or less from these two words here we can get an idea what
this idiom means to be down and out we'll have a look at the example he's
lost his job at home but he's not totally down-and-out just yet so down
and out means that you have basically nothing you don't have a you don't have
a home you're you're ruined financially okay maybe you're living in the streets
it is that bad so you're down and out but this person although he lost his job
he's not completely down and out just yet he's holding on still so he's not
down and out just yet he still has some resources that are preventing him from
being homeless or you know being absolutely down and out now the next one
keep your head above water again through the context we can get an idea to keep
your head above water so let's have a look at the sentence with the cost of
living rising I'm finding it hard to keep my head above water okay so imagine
that if you can't keep your head above water you drown okay so you drown
financially okay not literally but metaphorically financially speaking you
have to try to keep your head above water so that you can breathe okay cost
of living is rising and it becomes more and more difficult because that cost of
living is rising to keep your head above water the next one is on a shoe strength
this one might not be familiar to you it's hard to keep operating on a
shoestring we may need to close down so if you're operating on a shoestring it
means that you don't have a lot of resources your resources are limited
your budget is limited perhaps in a company the company
expenses perhaps your monthly expenses at home if you're on a shoestring it
means that you don't have a lot of money to spend or perhaps you choose to live
on a shoe strength for example maybe you are a
frugal person you like to live on a shoestring not spend a lot of money
you're quite economical with your cash on a shoestring so it's hard to keep
operating on a shoestring especially if you have a business it's hard to keep
operating on a shoestring the next one tighten your belt you need to tighten
your belt this idiom is used in other languages as well so tighten your belt
times are tough we might have to tighten our belts okay spend less money tighten
our belts become more economical with the resources that we have to tighten
our belts because times are tough we need to tighten our belts number six on
your uppers informal not very common nowadays but you can still hear it and
see it he's been on his uppers since he lost his job so he's being poor he's
been broke he's been on his uppers that's what it means he just doesn't
have any money he lost his job no income he's on his uppers and the last one in
the red in the red you can be in the black you can be in the red and in the
red means that you have a bank account that is in red numbers or a negative
balance in the bank my bank account is usually in the red because I spend more
money than I earn I find it difficult to make ends meet I find it difficult to
keep my head above water so my bank account is in the red not in the black
in the red so as we can see here bank account in the red so when your account
goes below zero and you owe the bank money you are in the red so 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 finance it eum's to talk about situations where you don't have a lot of
cash now thank you very much for watching the video if you have any
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in the next video english lesson have a good day bye