Is there a similar English phrase for this Tamil proverb - "Lavish outside home yet starving inside of it"?

Question

In Tamil, a south Indian language, there is a saying which roughly translates into English as:

Lavish outside home, starving inside of it.

Background :

This proverb has a mocking tone and indicates people who project themselves to be very rich and appear to spend lavishly on property and things, making their neighbors and the community around them envious of their stature. But in reality, whatever they are spending (or appear to spend) is because they have borrowed huge sums of money from other people and financial institutions. So much in fact that they are unable to feed their own family, probably skip a meal every day but when they step outside their home they try to appear posh and well-to-do.

Some close friends and relatives who know what's really going on with these people use this form of expression.

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Generally, I tend to find equivalent English proverbs that have the same tonality and convey the meaning as is but this particular one has been eluding me for long. Any suggestions, even if they don't convey the entire meaning?

Answer 1

Not an exact match but you might consider keeping up appearances.

From dictionary.cambridge.org

to ​pretend to be ​happier, less ​poor, etc. than you really are, because you do not ​want ​people to ​know how ​bad ​your ​situation is:

Answer 2

The previous answers are reasonable, but rather polite. British English has a rude, but also rather funny, expression which has much the same meaning: "all fur coat and no knickers".

The outside view (fur coat) is fine and expensive, but the wearer of the fur coat can't afford any underwear.

The expression isn't very common and perhaps slightly old fashioned but I would guess most Brits would know it.

ETA: To be fair, as pointed out below, the implication here isn't strictly financial it's more that a posh appearance hides a crude reality.

Answer 3

Another British expression would be "Kippers and curtains" which corresponds almost directly with the Tamil phrase. The original phrase was probably "kippers and lace curtains" dating from a time when kippers (smoked herrings) were a very cheap foodstuff and lace curtains would have been a rather expensive adornment.

It has fallen out of use a little in recent years but would still be understood by many in Britain, particularly those in England.

There is a piece here that explains the phrase quite nicely.

Answer 4

To live in genteel poverty.

There are some examples under the entry for genteel in Oxford, The Free dictionary, Meriam Webster.

He lived in genteel poverty (= trying to keep the style of a high social class, but with little money). (Oxford Dictionary)

An elderly woman living in genteel poverty. (Merriam Webster)

Answer 5

all flash no cash

Urban dictionary definition:

People who spend money they do not have.

Answer 6

"Hood rich" is really close to what you're looking for, but it typically describes someone who lives in the ghetto.

It's likely to be understood only in the US or in US-influenced culture.

From http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hood+Rich (cleaned up):

Someone who buys expensive clothes, cars, and eats out at expensive restaurants, but returns home to a shack in the hood. They usually are in debt up to their ears, and they keep trying to live the affluent lifestyle until the repo man comes and tows their car.

Answer 7

The U.S. cowboy equivalent might be "The bigger the hat, the smaller the property—or its short-form sibling "all hat, no cattle." The [Yale] Dictionary of Modern Proverbs (2012) has this entry for the longer phrase:

The bigger the hat (The wider the brim), the smaller the property (holding, ranch, herd). [First cited occurrence:] 1922 William MacLeod Raine, The Fighting Edge (New York: Grosset and Dunlap,) 135 (chapter title): "The Bigger the Hat, the Smaller the Herd," Later in the chapter: "...[H]e knew instinctively that real riders would resent any attempt on his part to swagger as they did. A remark dropped by Blister came to mind. 'The b-bigger the hat the smaller the herd, son. Do all yore bragging with yore actions.'"

The point is that the trappings of authenticity, skill, or expertise [or in the case of the Tamil proverb, wealth] are not the same as the thing itself.

Answer 8

Possibly "living beyond your means", which is often used in contexts where people have become accustomed to a certain standard of living, who then lose the means to sustain that standard (e.g. losing a job, getting a divorce, moving out of your parents house).

Answer 9

The person who spends everything on their home and has little left for the rest of life might be called house poor:

A situation that describes a person who spends a large proportion of his or her total income on home ownership, including mortgage payments, property taxes, maintenance and utilities. House poor individuals are short of cash for discretionary items and tend to have trouble meeting other financial obligations like vehicle payments.

(Investopedia)

From a census report on home ownership:

Since housing costs are higher in the West and Northeast, a larger percentage of owners in these two regions than in the South and Midwest were house-poor.

(Home Ownership Report, U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic and Statistics Administration, Bureau of the Census, 1991 )

Answer 10

I think there is a cultural nuance in your proverb that may be difficult to convey perfectly, but keeping up with the Joneses may suggest the idea of being keen on appearing more (especially richer) than you actually are or may afford to:

• to have all the same things as other people to avoid looking poor or old-fashioned:

  Her only concern in life was keeping up with the Joneses.

Answer 11

This reminds me of Proverbs 12:9:

Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food.

http://biblehub.com/proverbs/12-9.htm

Answer 12

It's not in widespread use, but in Yorkshire there's a phrase "Ten-bob millionaire" to describe exactly such people: who put on a show of living like millionaires (very rich) in public, but in truth only own/earn a small amount of money. "Ten bob" is an old term for half a pound sterling.

Answer 13

There's the phrases 'the cobbler's children are the worst shod' and 'the shoemaker's children go barefoot' which have the same sense of good things outside the home, bad things inside, and it's your fault.

Answer 14

you can't judge a book by its cover

You can't tell what something/someone is really like just by looking at it. It might be different from what it looks.

If someone says, "You can't judge a book by its cover," he/she advises you not to judge someone or something only by its appearance.

People also say, "You can't tell a book by its cover." elc.byu.edu

all that glitters is not gold

(saying) said about something that ​seems to be good on the ​surface, but might not be when you ​look at it more ​closely CDO

appearances can be deceiving

Prov. Things can look different from the way they really are. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs

Things aren't always what they seem

Just because something seems a certain way doesn’t mean it really is. Babylon English

Answer 15

It is not an exact match, but you could consider using the idiom house of cards which means:

A flimsy structure, arrangement, or situation that is in danger of collapsing or failing: 'The collapse of the rupiah ... has brought down a house of cards in overleveraged conglomerates'.

[American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition]

Example usage:

They are living in a house of cards, which will surely collapse once they can't pay off the debt they borrowed to maintain their luxurious lifestyle.

Answer 16

While the phrase has a specific religious connotation (of evil within and virtue without, where the Tamil one might have the exterior virtue of beneficence and the interior vice of waste, but maybe it's not that specific?), the structure of the concept is similar to a whited sepulchre:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.

Matthew 23:27

Answer 17

Not quite an exact match, but there's the concept of "fake it 'til you make it", which is about cultivating the appearance of what you want to be, even if you have nothing (skills/experience) to back it up. The idea being that people will give you a chance if they think you're qualified.

This isn't necessarily about wealth, and it's possible that the person isn't in financial hardship.

Also related would be "putting on airs" (being pretentious, but again, could be about just acting superior, not necessarily wealthy, nor that the person is in "dire straits" financially)

Answer 18

Ballin' on a budget.

As coined by the hip-hop group "Nappy Roots" on their 2002 studio album Watermelon, Chicken & Gritz.

Answer 19

A phrase "asset rich, cash poor" seems similar in it's origin. It was used for declining middle class families who owned large houses but were near bankrupt. However now that would probably be taken to mean they have low liquidity in their savings.

Answer 20

Nigger Rich. Not a proverb but has a mocking, mean spirited tone.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nigger%20rich&page=1

Answer 21

I personally use "cash poor" because I may have enough of a balance on a store's credit card that I can buy something expensive (like a computer), but I may not have the cash to buy groceries. I'm also fond of "in debt up to my eyeballs" as is depicted in this commercial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0HX4a5P8eE

Answer 22

"Putting up a false front" could be used in this case. It's not as specific, but does have the same "keeping up appearances" meaning.

This article goes into some explanation of the meaning of the phrase, mostly focusing on personal appearance. (e.g. Wearing fancy suits to make people think of you differently from how you see yourself.)

The origin is from buildings: a small / simple building with a multi-storey front wall that makes it look like a big building, but only from the front.

"Putting up a false front" (or putting on) can be something a family does to appear well-off when they're actually not.

Answer 23

A similar phrase might be "Fur coat and no knickers"?

Answer 24

A McMansion might fit the bill. Generally refers to a house that looks luxurious from the outside but may in reality be poorly constructed. Also usually implies that it is somewhat out of place in its neighborhood.

Answer 25

There is a similar expression that I have heard Irish people use. If someone is described as a "street angel" that means that they are very well behaved in public but maybe less so at home.