live from day to day

live from day to day

To exist or survive within the means available to one on a single day at a time, as out of a lack of consideration of or options regarding future resources or opportunities. There are too many families who are forced to live from day to day on the tiny pittance they are given through social welfare. I had a few random jobs when I was in college so I could live from day to day.
See also: live
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

live from day to day

Fig. to survive on limited means one day at a time with no plans or possibilities for the future. The Simpsons just live from day to day. They never plan for the future. I can't live from day to day. I have to provide for the future.
See also: live
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • out of consideration for (someone or something)
  • on mature consideration
  • on mature reflection/consideration
  • out of consideration of (something)
  • on radar
  • on someone's radar
  • on (one's) radar (screen)
  • out of consideration
  • consideration
  • in consideration of something
References in classic literature
Fentolin went on, "that I spend a great fortune buying the secrets of the world, that I live from day to day with the risk of ignominious detection always hovering about me - do you think that I do this and am yet unprepared to run the final risks of life and death?
In short, it would have been difficult to have recognised the same man under these various aspects, but for the bulky leather case full of bills and notes which he drew from his pocket at every house, and the constant repetition of the same complaint, (varied only in tone and style of delivery,) that the world thought him rich, and that perhaps he might be if he had his own; but there was no getting money in when it was once out, either principal or interest, and it was a hard matter to live; even to live from day to day.
We live from day to day laughing, albeit nervously, at how dependent we have become on Lanie and our driver, King-and, of course, on each other.
Do you have a manual of how to live from day to day? Where were you all these years as they worked hard or did you suddenly remember that they have a past now that they are successful?
'In my interactions with Libyan men, women and children, I see people who want to feel safe, have their rights respected and know that they do not have to live from day to day'.
"My son and I live from day to day. We used to have a very good standard of living.
Instead, it focuses on the senses and the hard-scrabble efforts it takes to live from day to day. The modern reader, used to an existence of taken-for-granted comfort, will discover just how a warm wood stove, dry clothes, a reliable horse and a working weapon can make the difference between comfort and misery at best, life and death at worst.
Pope Francis urged us to care for the poor as he thought of "those young people who are tempted to lose hope, to abandon their high ideals, to drop out of school, or to live from day to day on the streets." Clearly, apart from those who are economically challenged, he was also referring to those who are deprived of love and affection, those who seek attention, those needing to be listened to, and to be accepted.
"I didn't think about it," he tells writer Joseph Carman in "Taylor Made." "I live from day to day. I didn't care about the future.
In the article, entitled "Bulgaria: a daily survival," the paper writes that not only the Roma minority, but thousands of others Bulgarians have to live from day to day with little hope for the future.
You just live from day to day. You don't plan so much."
I live from day to day by relying on relatives and pals.
Mr David Bratt, defending, said Rafferty had lead a "chaotic and nomadic" lifestyle in the past and he had committed burglaries to fund his drug habit and live from day to day.
I'd like to keep my dignity, not live from day to day.