balance the budget

Meaning

To plan or manage finances so that the amount of money spent is equal to or less than the amount of money earned. It can refer to personal finances, household budgets, or government spending.

Examples

• With rising food prices, it is becoming harder for families to balance the budget.

  With rising food prices, it is becoming harder for families to balance the budget.

• The government is under pressure to balance the budget by the end of the fiscal year.

  The government is under pressure to balance the budget by the end of the fiscal year.

• We had to cut back on dining out just to balance the budget this month.

  We had to cut back on dining out just to balance the budget this month.

• The university is struggling to balance the budget due to declining enrollment.

  The university is struggling to balance the budget due to declining enrollment.

• If we want to balance the budget, we need to either increase our income or reduce our spending.

  If we want to balance the budget, we need to either increase our income or reduce our spending.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ We need to make the budget balanced.

  ✓ We need to balance the budget.

  While grammatically possible, 'balance the budget' is the highly established and natural verb-noun collocation used by native speakers.

• ✗ She is trying to equal the budget this month.

  ✓ She is trying to balance the budget this month.

  'Equal' is not used to describe matching expenses to income; the correct financial term is 'balance'.

Related Expressions

Practice

• Cutting down on subscription services helped us ___.

  💡 Match expenses with income.

  Show answer

  balance the budget

• The mayor promised to ___ without raising local taxes.

  💡 Manage the city's finances responsibly.

  Show answer

  balance the budget