scrape by

He was averaging only a few points per game at Loyola Chicago, barely scraping by in the Ramblers’ rotation while also struggling with his mental health.

That's because, in America today, even when the economy soars, the middle class barely scrapes by.

Tired of scraping by in a provincial backwater, she is desperate for them to realize her unfulfilled dreams of stardom.

I grew up in a working-class town surrounded by adults scraping by week to week and striving to lift themselves into the middle class.

James was a stalwart patriarch of a working-class family on the Chicago's South Side struggling to scrape by, earning what he could by juggling part-time work.