Idiom for a situation or event that makes one poor or even poorer?

Is there any idiom or expression in the English language that describes a situation in which the budget goes tight(er) and one becomes poor? In my mother tongue, they say "X happened and their bread gets thinner/smaller," implying on a situation in which the individuals should eat less as the result of economic hardship. Is there any phrase similar to this in the English language?

Solution 1:

I've heard the expression "water down the soup", as in "The budget is pretty tight this week so we'd better water down the soup." It implies trying to stretch your resources. Adding more water to a pot of soup will get you more servings, although they will be less filling and nutritious. It's along the same lines as "spreading the butter thinner" mentioned above.

When I do a search on the web for this expression, all I get are links to cooking sites. However, there are various historical references to people watering down soup or making soup out of otherwise non-food ingredients in order to try to survive famine conditions, such as the French Army during Napoleon's retreat from Russia, so that might be a possible origin.

Solution 2:

You can say they had to take their belt in a notch (or two)

From the Free Dictionary:

take (one's) belt in (a notch (or two))

To reduce, restrict, or limit one's budget or expenses; to live more modestly or make financialsacrifices. (Alluding to having a thinner waist line due to having less to eat.)

With your mother out of work, we're all going to have to take our belts in a notch or two for a little while.

The other commenter already mentioned the closely related 'tighten one's belt'.

Solution 3:

"X happened and they found themselves unable to make ends meet."

make ends meet - To earn just enough money to pay one's bills.

• To make ends meet, Phil picked up a second job delivering pizzas.
• After the large income tax hike, many people suddenly found it difficult to make both ends meet.
• Since I lost my job, I’m finding it harder to make ends meet.

— Farlex via The Free Dictionary

Solution 4:

If you say that someone has been put through the wringer /ˈrɪŋə(r)/ or has gone through the wringer, you mean that they have suffered a very difficult or unpleasant experience. It's possible that the experience is about great hardships and getting poorer. But the idiom in your mother tongue is still more specific, I think.

By the way, a wringer is a piece of equipment used for removing water from wet clothes by squeezing them between two rollers.

If you have to spend less money than you did before because you don't have as much money, you can say that you have to tighten your belt.