feel the pinch

Example: “With prices rising, many families are feeling the pinch.”

Origin: In use since the 1500s, with Shakespeare's King Lear already speaking of accepting "necessity's sharp pinch," and firmly established as an economic metaphor by the time The Times of London wrote in the 1860s that hard times meant "all classes felt the pinch." Several literal images have been proposed for what exactly is doing the pinching: a tightened belt worn snugger as meals get smaller, a child's shoes gone uncomfortably tight because new ones couldn't be afforded, or, in a less common account, clothing forced to fit poorly when even the clothespins needed to fasten it properly were too costly to buy. None is definitively confirmed, but all point to the same underlying sensation — the small, constant discomfort of getting by on less than you need.