beyond one's means
2
5.6
- idiom
:
más allá de sus medios
- You lived beyond your means and spent and spent.
- living beyond one's means
- spending beyond one's means
Examples
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I was still living way beyond my means.
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It is never smart to give yourself more incentives to live beyond your means.
Blog text (29) -
You have always lived beyond your means.
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I only do it because I enjoy living beyond my means.
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I told Mother for years that both of you have been living far beyond your means.
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The woman I am currently seeing lives well beyond her means.
Blog text (30) -
But the rent of apartments in the area where he wanted to live was beyond his means.
Fiction book (1994) -
He lived way beyond his means and died with a million dollars' worth of debt.
Blog text (18) -
Unfortunately, Uncle Sam—like many Americans—has been living beyond his means and spending more than he takes in.
Blog text (4) -
Many families struggle because they are living beyond one's means due to high expenses.
Synonyms
7
4.4
To use more money than you can afford or planned to use
How Affordable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'spending more than one can afford' is directly compositional: 'beyond' = exceeding and 'one's means' = one's financial resources, so a learner who knows those words can infer the sense. This is a common, cross-linguistic way to express exceeding capacity and follows standard English composition, making it readily understandable to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Beyond one's means creates a simple picture: means is the money or resources you have, and beyond is past your reach, like an item that is just out of your budget. That's why it means 'spending more money than you can afford'.