money doesn't grow on trees

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a common English idiom reminding the listener that money requires effort to obtain and cannot be produced effortlessly or in unlimited quantities, used to discourage wasteful spending or unrealistic expectations about financial resources; the metaphor imagines money as something that would be freely available without effort if it could grow on trees like fruit or leaves, and asserts by negation that this is not the case — money must be earned through labour, investment, or enterprise; the idiom is frequently used by parents to children who ask for money without appreciating its scarcity value, and by financial advisors to clients whose spending plans exceed their income; it expresses the general economic principle of scarcity — resources are finite and must be allocated — in a homely, accessible metaphor; the phrase also implicitly addresses the temptation of wishful thinking about wealth and gently corrects the fantasy that financial abundance can be achieved without effort, risk, or sacrifice