[make, earn] a living, [earn] a crust, bring home the bacon, make some dough, earn one’s [keep, salt, corn, bread and butter], [make, earn, gain] one’s [daily] bread, earn one’s [bread, living] by the sweat of one’s brow
Contexto
«Indignation that someone could buy their way into an elite university of the kind I dreamed of attending while the vast majority of us had no such means. And pride in knowing that I had been working hard to “make the grade” in public school and “earn my keep” in life by mowing lawns and mucking stalls from an early age. If I continued to diligently build my resume, surely I too could attend a top-tier university.»