The Collaborative International Dictionary
Scrimp \Scrimp\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Scrimped (?; 215); p. pr. & vb. n. Scrimping.] [Cf. Dan. skrumpe, G. schrumpfen, D. krimpen. Cf. Shrimp, Shrink.] To make too small or short; to limit or straiten; to put on short allowance; to scant; to contract; to shorten; as, to scrimp the pattern of a coat.
Scrimp and save. Economize and save the money not spent.
Wiktionary
vb. (context idiomatic English) To scrimp greatly; to economize; to live very frugally, particularly when saving for something.
Usage examples of "scrimp and save".
Why would the Gods give all their riches to a few, and leave most of their children to scrimp and save, hoping forever to earn enough silver to sleep by an open fire, for enough copper to buy a pot of porridge?
I had to watch my mother scrimp and save and work in a sleazy diner while he got richer and richer instead of rotting in a cell.
And I had to scrimp and save while all the time you were living in a nice house, being waited on, reaping in glory.
You never had to 'scrimp and save, not in the home you grew up in.
But there was no choice, she imagined: larger buildings simply were not available, least of all to charities, which would have to scrimp and save to meet their costs.
He, who now had to scrimp and save in order to afford a trip up to Francistown each year, would be able to eat meat every day and drink Lion Lager with his friends on Friday evenings, generously buying rounds for all.
If you're lucky, you'll be able to scrimp and save and manage your pitiful finances well enough to get yourself a dinky little apartment somewhere so far from New York City that your neighbors think a bagel is a kind of dog like Snoopy!