champagne taste on a beer budget

• champagne taste on a beer billfold
• champagne taste on a beer pocketbook
• champagne taste on a beer salary
• champagne taste on a beer wallet

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champagne taste on a beer budget (plural champagne tastes on a beer budget or champagne tastes on beer budgets)

1. (idiomatic) Expensive desires or preferences in which one lacks the finances to fulfill satisfactorily.
   • 1970 May 2, “SP Travel: Parisians enjoy eating-out but it becomes costly”, in Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, Canada, retrieved 26 July 2011, page 8:

     The traveller who expects to satisfy a champagne taste on a beer budget in this food-conscious city may be in for a disappointment.

   • 1994 September 12, “Editorial: School board has used up taxes, excuses”, in Kentucky New Era, USA, retrieved 26 July 2011, page 4A:

     The fact is the school system has spent itself into debt, at least partly by exhibiting a champagne taste on a beer budget.

   • 2002, Robert Irwin, How to Buy a Home When You Can't Afford It‎, →ISBN, page 22:

     We would all like to live in a palatial estate with a dozen bedrooms and as many bathrooms. Having champagne taste on a beer budget is nothing new. However, be realistic.

• live beyond one's means