money pit

money pit

A business, possession, or other financial commitment that requires or consumes an increasingly large amount of money, especially more than was first anticipated. I bought this restaurant because of its prime downtown location, but with all the repairs and the huge amount of staff needed to run it, it's proven to be quite a money pit. The problem with buying used cars is that, even if they started off being cheap, they often turn into money pits as they start breaking down.
See also: money, pit
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • on the sauce
  • take back
  • take one back
  • breakfast of champions
  • gas guzzler
  • gas-guzzler
  • guzzler
  • hold
  • holding
  • foodaholic
References in periodicals archive
Since then the mystery of Oak Island's "Money Pit" has enthralled generations of treasure hunters, including a Boston insurance salesman whose obsession ruined him; young Franklin Delano Roosevelt; and film star Errol Flynn.
Paisley Southeast Councillor Eddie Devine yesterday described the problem as a "money pit" which he fears is about to get worse.
After they flee, Carla warns Peter that the place is a money pit and challenges him to a game - saying that if she wins, he has to pull out of the sale.
ButCarla warns Peter that the snooker hall is a money pit and challenges him to a game of snooker, suggesting if she wins he pulls out of the sale.
The money pit If someone in a sleeveless top holds the above-head handrail on public transport, it's impossible not to check out their armpit.
Correct, but far too generous, they're also a money pit (other people's), an anti-democratic elitist club, and their current hissy-fit at losing the second biggest funder of their extravagant lifestyle is typical of their spoilt brat behaviour.
She was in movies The Money Pit (1986), Outrageous Fortune (1987), Hello Again (1987), Troop Beverly Hills (1989), The Brady Bunch Movie (1995), A Very Brady Sequel (1996), and Dr T & the Women (2000).
The reservoir is still a source of worry and a money pit for local residents and governments alike, according to CNA.
"Bethenny fears it could be more of a money pit then a successful flip, and both are left wondering if business and friendship can actually mix," the official episode synopsis details.
Anyone who has refurbished a house may have at one point used the phrase 'money pit' to describe the seemingly endless expense involved.
On a serious note, DG One (aka the money pit) is still a long way from completion and re-opening and we still move headlong toward yet another disastrous project that I guarantee not one single council officer will ever be held responsible for (as is the case with DG One), once it is completed and has failed miserably.
The country does not need yet another money pit, particularly when there are so many other areas that are in desperate need of both the state's resources and focus.
Soon after the house was finished in 1921, its owner, bohemian heiress Aline Barnsdall, fed up with the money pit (construction costs ran way over budget), gave it to the city.
Population density outside the Northeast corridor will never support a profitable passenger rail enterprise, and Amtrak has proven over and over again to be a mismanaged money pit. Why the insistence on outmoded transportation infrastructure?