Entry 1
A bigger bang for your buck
Meaning Better value for your money.
Usage Worldwide, but overused to the point of cliche.
Example
- Those Chinese fireworks are so cheap. We literally get a bigger bang for our buck.
Pronunciation
Idioms · 19 entries
Money
What does "Money" mean?
Better value for your money.
A bigger bang for your buck
A dime a dozen
A fool and his money are soon parted
The United Kingdom - 16th century.
A golden key can open any door
The United Kingdom.
A penny for your thoughts
The United Kingdom - 16th century.
A penny saved is a penny earned
The United Kingdom - 17th century.
An arm and a leg
USA, mid-20th century. Often mistakenly thought to be related to the high cost of painting full-length portraits.
Bean counter
New Zealand.
Bedroom tax
Britain, following the introduction of the Spare Room Subsidy in the UK in 2013.
Beyond price
Britain, 16th century.
Chicken feed
USA, mid-19th century.
Mates rates
Australian origin, 20th century.
Nest egg
Britain, 17th century.
Ring fencing
Britain, early 20th century.
Scot-free
Britain, 16th century. Not, as is often thought, related to the American slave Dred Scott.
Scrape together
Skid row
USA, early 20th century.
Where there’s muck there’s brass
Britain - especially Yorkshire.
You can’t take it with you
Britain, 1930s - deriving from several similar idioms dating from the early 19th century onward.
Entry 2
A dime a dozen
Meaning So commonplace as to be of little consequence.
Usage Worldwide.
Example
- Red buses in London. they’re a dime a dozen.
Entry 3
A fool and his money are soon parted
Meaning A foolish person is very likely to lose his money.
Usage Worldwide.
Example
- He’s off to the casino again - ’a fool and his money...’ I say.
Pronunciation
Entry 4
A golden key can open any door
Meaning Money always has a telling influence.
Usage Worldwide, but somewhat uncommon.
Example
- He’s not really good enough to be an F1 driver but he got in the team because he brought a major sponsorship deal with him. As they say, a golden key can open any door.
Pronunciation
Entry 5
A penny for your thoughts
Meaning A way of asking what someone is thinking.
Usage Most common in Britain (although we don’t use pennies here any longer).
Example
- You’ve been gazing out the window with a wistful look for ages. A penny for your thoughts?
Pronunciation
Entry 6
A penny saved is a penny earned
Meaning Anything you save has the same effect as adding to your income.
Usage Worldwide, but uncommon.
Example
- I put all my small change into a jar every day. It’s not much, but a penny saved is a penny earned.
Pronunciation
Entry 7
An arm and a leg
Meaning Very expensive. A large amount of money.
Usage Worldwide.
Example
- That new lawnmower is top of the range. It cost me an arm and a leg.
Pronunciation
Entry 8
Bean counter
Meaning A disparaging term for an accountant or anyone who compiles statistics.
Usage Worldwide.
Example
- It's a shame. Jim was a first rate pure mathematician but the bank offered him so much money to be their bean counter he decided to take it.
Pronunciation
Entry 9
Bedroom tax
Meaning slang term for UK's removal of Spare Room Subsidy.
Usage Britain.
Example
- Just because I've got a room to keep my son's wheelchair I'm going to be caught by the bedroom tax.
Pronunciation
Entry 10
Beyond price
Meaning To be so prized and valuable as to not be obtainable by money.
Usage Worldwide.
Example
- Getting in to the school hall for the annual nativity play cost us $5 but seeing little Angie in the lead role was beyond price.
Pronunciation
Entry 11
Chicken feed
Meaning Something of little importance, especially a small sum of money.
Usage Worldwide.
Example
- The newsagent is really ripping off the kids who deliver the papers for him. He's paying them chicken feed.
Pronunciation
Entry 12
Mates rates
Meaning A discount price offered to friends.
Usage Worldwide, but most common down under.
Example
- I can't really afford to get the roof fixed but my pal Jim is a builder, maybe hell give me mates rates.
Pronunciation
Entry 13
Nest egg
Meaning Savings set aside for future use.
Usage Worldwide.
Example
- That pension will keep building until I'm 65. Its a good little nest egg.
Pronunciation
Entry 14
Ring fencing
Meaning Earmarking funds to guarantee a specific project can go ahead.
Usage Worldwide.
Example
- The government is making major cuts in spending, but at least the hospital will stay open - medical funding is ring-fenced.
Pronunciation
Entry 15
Scot-free
Meaning Without payment.
Usage Worldwide.
Example
- He was lucky that the traffic warden's pen ran out and he didn't get a ticket. He got off scot free.
Pronunciation
Entry 16
Scrape together
Meaning To manage, with difficulty, enough of what is needed - especially money.
Usage Worldwide.
Example
- Between three three of us we managed to scrape together £5 for a taxi home.
Pronunciation
Entry 17
Skid row
Meaning The rundown area of a city inhabited by the destitute.
Usage Worldwide, but most common in the USA.
Example
- Lost my job, Jill left me, started drinking - pretty soon I was on skid row.
Pronunciation
Entry 18
Where there's muck there's brass
Meaning Dirt and muddle are evidence of products being manufactured and money (brass) being made.
Usage England, most commonly in the north of England.
Example
- Stuff was coming in and out of the factory yard every five minutes and debris was piled everywhere. Business was brisk though - where there's muck there's brass you know.
Pronunciation
Entry 19
You can't take it with you
Meaning Suggestion that you should spend money and live life now as it will be no use to you after you die.
Usage Worldwide.
Example
- Grandma saved all her life but lived on a pittance. No one told her that you can't take it with you.
Pronunciation