Refers to when someone who has usually been "financially comfy" encounters an unexpected downturn in da ol' budget-department, and therefore is no longer able to "live da soft life" for da time being.
I suggested that my fairly-affluent neighbor consult my local "running on a shoestring" mechanic friend for lower-priced auto parts, but he somewhat-snortingly replied, "Well, yeah --- I could do that if I didn't mind dealing with a crook." Well, naturally, I felt kinda shocked and hurt, since the low-income junkyard-owner whom we were alluding to had always "used me good" --- he and his family were smilingly friendly, often gave my rides around town, and always let me use the office-phone in his repair-shop to make local calls in the days before my folks had a telephone of our own. But then just a few weeks later when I'd gone to make a phone call at the garage, I saw that this same somewhat-snooty neighbor had indeed stopped over there to see about a cobbled-together pickup truck that my friend was selling --- oooooohhhhh, did he ever look disgusted and humiliated to be even setting foot on this "lower-class" dude's property! I felt really glad that he apparently never observed me that time, so that he wouldn’t feel even MORE embarrassed that I knew that he had in fact eventually gone to try doing business with this guy, but at the same time I did feel a slight urge to gloatingly waltz out and sarcastically giggle to my neighbor, “So --- ya actually DID come to see this ‘crook’ after all, eh??? Kinda makes ya wanna think twice from now on about trash-talking other folks like that, eh? Ya never know when ya might ‘get poor’ and hafta go see them after all, eh??"
by QuacksO September 15, 2018