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The dated phrase bread-and-cheese living, and its variants, mean: subsistence-level living.
The variant bread-and-cheese existence occurred, for example, in the following about the sale at Sotheby’s of letters written by the British poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), published in The Halifax Daily Courier & Guardian (Halifax, Yorkshire, England) of Tuesday 18th May 1937 [page 6, column 1]:
At one period the Brownings were in money difficulties. At Lucerne in 1851 they were down to £80 for six months, and there was the warning of a bread-and-cheese existence. Five years later their friend Kenyon died, leaving the couple £11,000.
Since the 17th century, the expression bread and cheese has been used attributively to mean: ordinary, simple, basic. The following is from A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew. In its several Tribes, of Gypsies, Beggers, Thieves, Cheats, &c. With an Addition of some Proverbs, Phrases, Figurative Speeches, &c. Useful for all sorts of People, (especially Foreigners) to secure their Money and preserve their Lives; besides very Diverting and Entertaining, being wholly New (London: Printed for W. Hawes […], P. Gilbourne […], and W. Davies […] – [1699]), by “B. E. Gent.” [pages unnumbered]:
Bread and Cheese Bowling-green, a very ord’nary one, where they play for Drink and Tobacco. all wet, as ’tis called.
Bread and Cheese Constables, that trats their Neighbors and Friends at their coming into Office with such mean Food only.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the phrase bread-and-cheese living and variants that I have found:
1-: From Berrow’s Worcester Journal (Worcester, Worcestershire, England) of Thursday 13th June 1833 [page 3, column 5]—however, in this text, the phrase is a decent sort of bread-and-cheese living, and has thus positive connotations [cf. footnote]:
Extract from the Guardian and Public Ledger Newspaper, of Friday, the 7th June instant:—
“Colonel Davies has been for some time out of sorts with his old friends, the Whigs; the reason why—because when the Whigs got in, they cruelly left Colonel Davies out. The Colonel fancied, that his stars had destined him for the War Office; but Earl Grey read the stars differently. The Gallant Member condescended then so far as to bethink him, that the Clerkship of the Ordnance might prove a decent sort of bread and cheese living; but my Lord did not appear to regard him as great gun enough for even that subordinate affair.”
—Remark: In the original text, published in The Guardian and Public Ledger (London, England) of Friday 7th June 1833 [page 3, column 1], the expression is not “a decent sort of bread and cheese living”, but—oddly—“a decent sort of bread and cheese wine”.
2-: From The Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard (Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England) of Saturday 25th November 1837 [page 175, column 5]:
A Liberal.—A most notoriously hot-headed Radical of this city, who is by no means bashful of spouting at public political meetings, has again been showing his patriotic and liberal spirit not only by reducing his own men’s wages below bread and cheese living point, but has also been giving his economical advice gratuitously to other tradesmen. We are happy to state that a complete exposure of his improvident designs has been the only effect.
3-: From The Lincoln, Rutland, and Stamford Mercury (Stamford, Lincolnshire, England) of Friday 1st September 1843 [page 3, column 5]:
The owners of the river-craft and the tradesmen of the city are complaining of the delay in the completion of the lock at Torksey as seriously injurious […]. The principal injury caused is to the boat-owners: the close competition which has being [sic] going on for some time has so reduced the prices of carriage that the business has scarcely afforded them a bread-and-cheese living.
4-: From a letter to the Editor, by ‘A Fellow Townsman’, published in the West of England Conservative, and Plymouth and Devonport Advertiser (Plymouth, Devon, England) of Thursday 10th January 1850 [page 8, column 3]:
Let every working man bend all his energies to an endeavour to raise himself to a higher level, than bring others, who he may suppose to be in much better position, down to the level of his. I take it that this crushing grinding, competing system which has become the predominant feature of the age, is one [of] the most hideous offsprings of Whiggism. Men who are the producers of wealth are using every artifice to cut each other down to bread and cheese living, while others who are living on stated incomes arising from various sources are delighted at the exhibition at [sic] every fresh cut to the working man, as so much clear gain to them.
5-: From an account of a meeting of the hand-loom weavers of Norwich, published in The Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette (Norwich, Norfolk, England) of Saturday 19th January 1850 [page 3, column 1]:
Mr. Alden, a weaver, rose and said. On the 31st December, we went to Mr. Sultzer, to ask for an advance of wages. […] He [i.e., Mr. Sultzer] said, “[…] my workmen are earning good wages.” I answered, “We don’t know anything about that. Weavers are not earning good wages at present.” He said, “[…] I consider that if a man can get bread and cheese from the 1st of January to the 31st December, he has no reason to complain.” Stanton said, “We want a small piece of meat, Sir, with it;” and he could not but acknowledge that. […]
Mr. Parker, a weaver in Mr. Sultzer’s employment, explained, that Mr. S. used the words “bread and cheese” in a figurative sense, much in the same way as when a man said he could not get a crust. Mr. S. did not mean that they should have nothing else than bread and cheese […].
Mr. Stanton, one of the deputation, confirmed Mr. Alden’s statement; only varying the form of the expression used by Mr. Sultzer, who said that a bread and cheese living ought not to be despised, and that he understood the generality of the weavers did not earn more than 6s. or 7s. weekly. When he (Stanton) said, they ought to have a piece of meat, Mr. Sultzer admitted that they ought to have it, or that they deserved to have it.
6-: From Church Reform, published in The Bucks Chronicle, Bucks Gazette, and Advertiser for Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and Middlesex (Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England) of Saturday 17th May 1856 [page 2, column 5]:
We consider that every man who is called upon to officiate as a Minister of that Church should be removed from absolute poverty. The very position in which such a man is placed demands from him a certain appearance, and a respectable home. To give him such do we plead; and that the clergyman of every parish may have a trifle to spare to purchase books, and provide decently for his family, is the object we have in view.
So long as the Church of England is fostered by the State, so long should every minister receive from its revenues enough to enable him comfortably to live. There might be a fairer equalisation. We would unmercifully take from the Goliahs [sic], and give to the Davids. The pomp of the Bishops and Archbishops only tends to bring the Church into disrepute; while the sufferings of the poor curates, and bread-and-cheese livings, make the distribution of the revenues a disgrace to enlightened England.
Note: There seems to be an error in the Oxford English Dictionary (online edition – July 2023). This dictionary defines the attributive use of bread and cheese in bread-and-cheese living as meaning:
Of work, a livelihood, etc.: modest but dependable; that furnishes a basic rather than a lavish income.
But the early occurrences of bread-and-cheese living that I have found indicate that this phrase means: subsistence-level living—and has thus negative connotations. It is only in the first quotation (from Berrow’s Worcester Journal of 13th June 1833) that bread-and-cheese living has positive connotations—and that only because it is preceded by a decent sort of.
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