Make Ends Meet Quotes & Sayings

I met a woman working 30 hours a week, trying to make ends meet, three children. And she slept the night before I met her in her car because she's homeless. We can do better. We can build a nation of shared prosperity. — Thomas Perez

Raising a family is difficult enough. But it's even more difficult for single parents struggling to make ends meet. They don't need more obstacles. They need more opportunities. — Bill Richardson

The client isn't quite satisfied and then the prostitute is always unsatisfied but is doing it just to make ends meet. And if you're doing fine art, if you're doing it for a gallery or a museum, it's so sterilized. It's such an antiseptic environment. — Eric Drooker

Would you do your job and not be paid for it? I would do this job, and take on a second job just to make ends meet if nobody paid me. That's how you know you are doing the right thing. — Oprah Winfrey

Catholicism fascinated him, the contortions it put itself through to make ends meet. Father Murray had kept returning to the word 'despair.' There'd been a little (bizarre, Luke thought) linguistic diversion into Latin. Desperare, formed by the 'de' prefex, signifying the removal of or from, and 'sperare,' meaning to hope. The removal of hope. That was despair. The reasoning being that you couldn't live without hope. What Murray hadn't said (but what, along with the story of the suicide ghost, Luke remembered from childhood) was that despair was classified as a sin against the Holy Spirit. That was the perverse beauty of the religion: that your daughter could be raped and murdered and yourself still condemned for giving up hope. — Glen Duncan

I got married when I was 16 so I had to do shift-work to make ends meet. — Tom Jones

If you wait to see how much money you have left at the end of the month to put toward savings, the answer may be zero. So, set up an automated monthly transfer from your checking to savings account. Once you lock into that commitment, you'll be forced to scale back spending to make ends meet. — Suze Orman

He was talking about someplace called Spanky's over in the District. The District was where all the working girls lived and worked. It was where all the strip clubs and bars where girls were looking to make ends meet on their backs were at. It was still in the Point, just one more part of what living on the poor side of town brought you. — Jay Crownover

About the time we think we can make ends meet, somebody moves the ends. — Herbert Hoover

could make them laugh, and although he couldn't make them like him, that was absolutely okay. They were dead-enders headed for dead-end marriages and dead-end jobs. They would raise dead-end kids and dandle dead-end grandkids before coming to their own dead ends in dead-end hospitals and nursing homes, rocketing off into darkness believing they had lived the American Dream and Jesus would meet them at the gates of heaven with the Welcome Wagon. Morris was meant for better things. He just didn't know what they were. — Stephen King

As a former small business owner, I recognize both the important role small businesses play in our economy and the broad universe of challenges that small business owners face in trying to make ends meet. — Sue Kelly

City life is stressful. Everybody is running around like crazy, stuck in traffic jams trying to make meetings, trying to make ends meet, trying to meet deadlines, trying to get kids to and from activities. There aren't enough hours in the day for all this business. — Rebecca Pidgeon

I became married at a young age and had two daughters and divorced at 26. I had to go on welfare to make ends meet. I had no way to support myself. — Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Parents today are under a lot of stress, sometimes working two jobs just to make ends meet. They're trying to find day care for their kids and elder care for their own parents. The Federal Government shouldn't add to their worries by not living up to its obligations. — Barbara Mikulski

About the time we can make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends. — Herbert Hoover

I treat my writing like a day job, like my main job, even if for many years I was doing other jobs to pay the bills. I worked as a copy editor. I was a medical guinea pig. I was an eBay power seller of ladies' handbags. I was an assistant to a bookie at the horse races. I bartended. I did anything I could to make ends meet. — Miguel Syjuco

We're all like the slaves in the fields now, putting on the front that says 'Everything's fine, boss' while we worry about how to make ends meet. — Irvine Welsh

You have stood at this junction before You will stand at this junction again And if you pause you can ask yourself Which way to turn You can turn away from your own sadness And run the race named revenge You will run that tired track again and again Or you can admit your own pain And walk the path that ends In this direction lies freedom, my friend I can show you where hope and wholeness make their homes But you can't push past your anguish on your way there To find the path to peace You will have to meet your pain And speak its name — Desmond Tutu

My mom worked for Lockheed Corp. in Burbank as an inspector of airplane parts. To help make ends meet, Dee, a friend of my mom's from Lockheed, moved in. She was a lovely person and helped with our care for many years. — Rene Russo

Growing up in a lower-income family, you don't have the resources to make ends meet and you have to find creative ways to get by. — Hilary Swank

A brother with small earnings may ask,'Should I also give? My earning are already so small that my family can barely make ends meet.' My reply is, 'Have you ever considered that the very reason your earnings remain so small may be because you spend everything on yourself? If God gave you more, you would only use it to increase your own comfort instead of looking to see who is sick or who has no work at all that you might help them. — George Muller

If you can't make ends meet, meet them in the middle instead — Benny Bellamacina

When a gently born spinster has little money, her choices are few. She might receive an offer of marriage, but it's unlikely to be from a wealthy man, so she'll have a hard life trying to make ends meet for her growing family. — Jo Beverley

Both men and women react negatively when women negotiate on their own behalf. A man can just negotiate: "I have a better offer. That's not enough to make my family's ends meet." No one feels bad about it. But when a woman does that, there's a backlash. — Sheryl Sandberg

Every movie I work with the costume designer to see what feels like the character, not what Columbus would wear but what is right for the character. Outside of the armored truck standard issue security guard uniform, this guy is trying to make ends meet. He might have one pair of jeans, the same boot, maybe changes his shirt but he doesn't have a walk-in closet full of things, so I wanted something comfortable that felt like the character. — Columbus Short

Too many Californians are struggling to make ends meet, pay the bills, and send their kids to college. They are looking for progressive leaders in Washington who will fight for them, like Senator Boxer has done for over 20 years. — Antonio Villaraigosa

In an era when too many Americans are losing their jobs or working for less, trying to make ends meet, in close cases Judge [Samuel] Alito has ruled the vast majority of the time against the claims of the individual citizens. He has acted instead in favor of government, large corporations and other powerful interests. — Edward Kennedy

It's wrong that members of Congress can purchase luxury airfare with taxpayer money when many families in my district and across the county are struggling to make ends meet. — Raul Ruiz

Yes, yes, yes we say,
without a thought for the day.
Running and fretting to make ends meet
rushing from Susie to Joe and to Pete.
Our lives, in upheaval, have turned to a tizzy,
never completing, because we're too busy.
All we must do for a tranquil soul
is employ a word, just one, called NO. — J. Grant Howard

When you are struggling to make both ends meet no one especially your close ones sees you but when everything is okay and beautiful then you will start seeing their faces. That is people and life . — Osunsakin Adewale

I work in a hospital as a patient transporter to make ends meet for my three kids. — Tom Guiry

Families rely on financial services more than ever, but those who need them most - who struggle to make ends meet - too often must contend with sky-high interest rates and tricks and traps buried in the fine print of their loan products. — Elizabeth Warren

There were office-worn gents with yellow faces, bent backs, and one shoulder set slightly higher than the other from spending hours hunched over desks. And their sad, anxious faces spoke volumes about their domestic troubles, never-ending money worries, and all those old hopes which had been dashed for good; for they all belonged to the army of poor threadbare drudges who just about make ends meet in some dismal plasterboard house with a flowerbed for a garden in the rubbish-and-slag-heap belt on the outskirts of Paris. — Guy De Maupassant

I grew up in the 1930s Great Depression when many families struggled to make ends meet, and in an area where old-fashioned country gospel music was popular. Later, as an adult with a more mature outlook on Christianity, I realized that a lot of that music was rather shallow. — Jerry Bridges

People are trying to figure out how to pay bills and make ends meet. They don't want to turn on the TV and say, 'What is this crap?' — Bill Engvall

These men both publicly and privately have done so much for me. Without Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick I would be living in a little motel just around the corner here, trying to make ends meet. — Mel Brooks

While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. — Warren Buffett

People are struggling. They're trying to make ends meet, and they're looking for Washington to deliver for them. And they don't feel that that's been happening as quickly as it should. We share that frustration. There's no one more frustrated than President Obama. — Valerie Jarrett

The best antidote to poverty remains simple - a paycheck. Policies like paid family leave, workplace flexibility and affordable quality childcare can make the difference for two-parent or single-parent working families who struggle to make ends meet. — Madeleine M. Kunin

So for me the creative world isn't what you do after your day job, though many professional musicians do this to make ends meet, but it's something that IS a job. Perhaps that's why I'm not as disheartened by the more cold blooded aspects of the industry. Over the course of watching my mother navigate the creative world I've seen just about every trick pulled that could have been and I've seen her deposit the checks received for a job well done. When I recently asked her why she chose the creative world she said: "Early on I decided that if I had to work I was going to work at something that I loved."

I'm glad she did. As difficult, chaotic, dysfunctional and crazy as the world in music and the arts can be I always knew that they mattered deeply to her, as they do to me. — Jamie Freveletti

I felt like I was an outsider. I think what happened to me made me develop this street sense of watching people and working out what made them tick, wondering whether I could trust them or not. I went to a lot of schools along the coast in California, made few friends and stayed with aunts, uncles and grandparents while my folks tried to make ends meet. It was tough. We had no money. — Tobey Maguire

In a packed programme tonight, we will be talking to an out-of-work contortionist who says he can no longer make ends meet. — Ronnie Barker

Each year it grows harder to make ends meet - the ends I refer to are hands and feet. — Richard Armour

Like tens of millions of Americans, my parents were immigrants. They were poor and did not speak English well. They went to flea markets and sold gifts to make ends meet. Eventually, through hard work, they opened six gift stores in shopping malls. My parents achieved the American dream; they went from being poor to a home and gave my brother and me an amazing education. I wanted to serve the country that gave so much to my family. — Ted Lieu

There were times when I was working three jobs at one time, and I was still auditioning just to make ends meet, and I was hoping that something was going to come through. Especially after you have two degrees, standing solid through the process is sometimes the hardest part because there is no guarantee. — Grace Gealey

The tax laws are written by men with considerable net worth, and with little understanding of what wage-earners must do to make ends meet. — Martin L. Gross

My priorities have always been God first, family second, career third. I have found that when I put my life in this order, everything seems to work out. God was my first priority early in my career when I was struggling to make ends meet. Through the failures and success I have experienced since then, my faith has remained unchecked. — Mary Kay Ash

the Army contracts private carriers to handle the overflow. In the Gulf War, they even had to resort to forcing major airline companies to cough up planes to make ends meet, under a compulsive federal system known as the Civilian Reserve Airfleet Program (my favorite government acronym of all time). — Piers Platt

The schools that suffer are the schools in, in poor neighborhoods. They are the neighborhoods with the greatest need, with the parents struggling to work and to make ends meet. They don't have enough resources to give, they don't have enough resources to pay more, and these are the neighborhoods that go first. — Sonia Sotomayor

Growing up, my family struggled to make ends meet, so I know how important organizations like The Salvation Army are for families to lean on in times of need. — Becky G

Republican leadership in Congress let the energy companies write the energy bill that sent prices soaring, and has turned a blind eye to the struggles of working families trying to make ends meet. — Sherrod Brown

The fight to make ends meet, keeps a man upon his feet. — Robert Palmer

I could not understand how people could not like something as beautiful as the aerodrome. But I had lately become convinced that in general people were pretty boring. They liked to moan for hours on end about how hard it was to make ends meet, about the money they owed, the price of food, and other similar worries, but the minute some more brilliant or attractive subject come up, they were struck deaf. — Ismail Kadare

A middle child, I was born in the depths of the Great Depression. My dad and mom were factory workers, struggling to make ends meet. — Dennis L. McKiernan

I just don't think of myself as a star. This is what I do for a living; I'm fortunate that I make ends meet. — Phil Collins

I couldn't make ends meet. I tried Red Lobster. I tried Wal-Mart. I tried all these places and I couldn't make it. I couldn't. So, I tried this gentlemen's club, and, you know, I worked there, and it was just awful in those places. It was terrible. — Anna Nicole Smith

Infinity is a dreadfully poor place. They can never manage to make ends meet. — Norton Juster

Life is not so simple as you think without taking those risks, trying everything to make ends meet. — Auliq Ice

Most families rely on two incomes to make ends meet, and when a woman earns less, we put working families at a huge disadvantage. — Ann McLane Kuster

The SPR is intended to provide relief at times when working families are struggling to make ends meet, and to counter the price shocks that accompany severe supply disruptions. Now is undoubtedly such a time. — Bill Vaughan

I think it's important to be able to say that you did live a normal life and struggled to make ends meet. It all has to do with work ethic and how I apply myself to my awesome job now. I've always been used to working because I've been working since I was four. — Naya Rivera

A lot of people in this country right now are living with multiple generations under one roof, struggling to make ends meet. — Martha Plimpton

I know what it's like to struggle for cash. When I went to drama school, I worked as a chambermaid to make ends meet. — Dawn French

Families and businesses are tightening their belts to make ends meet - and Washington should too. — Evan Bayh

Right now, with millions of Americans still out of work, and struggling to recover from the worst economic downturn since the great depression, with 40 million Americans dealing with student loans, with millions of people working full-time at minimum wage and still living in poverty, with the big banks getting bigger and the workers getting poorer, and seniors struggling to make ends meet, Republicans in Washington have decided the most important thing for them to focus on is how to deny women access to birth control. — Elizabeth Warren

My background's working class. My parents had to work to make ends meet. We don't come from any sense of privilege. — Jon Bon Jovi

I gotta make a living somehow, and make ends meet. I accept the idea of having a retirement. — Ted Leo

Does anyone really believe it is possible to make even the most basic ends meet on $5.15 an hour? — Russ Carnahan

I went from buying my own condominium and a car for myself when I was 17 on 'The Facts of Life' to not being able to pay my rent. I was at the unemployment office all the time. I had to sell my record collection just to make ends meet. And then I started getting these voice-over jobs. — Pamela Adlon

All that evening he talked to the Candle of Arras, in a low confidential tone. When you get down to it, he thought, there's not much difference between politics and sex; it's all about
power. He didn't suppose he was the first person in the world to make this observation. It's a question of seduction, and how fast and cheap you can effect it: if Camille, he thought, approximates to one of those little milliners who can't make ends meet - in other words, an absolute pushover - then Robespierre is a Carmelite, mind set on becoming Mother Superior. You can't corrupt her; you can wave your cock under her nose, and she's neither shocked nor interested: why should she be, when she hasn't the remotest idea
what it's for? — Hilary Mantel

I was a bicycle messenger when Alkaline Trio was formed as a way to make ends meet and I've just always been a cyclist and then I got really into - through messengering - I got really into road bikes and fixed gears. — Matt Skiba

Our governor in Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, once told a story about his grandma. She said, "Don't call people 'the poor.' Call people broke. Broke is temporary." I try not to say "the poor" because it sounds like a sentence, like I'm putting people in a box, far away from those of us who can make ends meet. But someone who is broke, on the other hand, is a peer. — Molly Phinney Baskette

We had to make ends meet. My parents were divorced, so my father wasn't really in my life. We grew up like most kids, just wanting things. — Jeffrey Donovan

While some people are certainly seeing economic benefits, many others are unemployed, underemployed, without health insurance and struggling to make ends meet. — Jerry Costello

I'm a proud fighter for the little guy and the people of my state who are struggling to make ends meet. That's what Louisiana values are about. — Charlie Melancon

It's not like suddenly, when you become a working actor all your friends are in the same situation. I have friends who are still handing out flyers for their one-woman show and trying to make ends meet. — Nia Vardalos

If people can't make ends meet at home with food, benefits, health, and health care in particular, how can they be present, engaged, knowledge workers when they come to work? — Mark T Bertolini

A lot of my friends are artists or musicians or single parent families and I'm totally aware of how difficult it is for them to make ends meet. — Shirley Manson

Both my mother and my father grew up in Asia, in a time of political instability. They'd earned college degrees before setting foot in the States but had to work menial jobs early on in order to make ends meet. — Gene Luen Yang