Wiktionary
vb. (context intransitive English) To only afford the essentials; to barely sustain oneself.
WordNet
v. manage one's existence barely; "I guess I can squeeze by on this lousy salary" [syn: scrape along, scratch along, squeak by, squeeze by, rub along]
Usage examples of "scrape by".
He used to travel around the country, performing for the kids and the old folks, barely making enough to scrape by.
Trying to scrape by on a lousy pension that was only enough to keep us going, but not enough to get me the extra things other kids had.
Echend continued to lead because Fhingold had no space to scrape by to relieve him.
As it is, she must scrape by earning maybe a tenth of what the male instructor pulls down, giving lessons to a small number of addled or henpecked stumblebums like Randy Waterhouse.