pays one's way

Verb

pay one's way (third-person singular simple present pays one's way, present participle paying one's way, simple past and past participle paid one's way)

1. Of an individual or business, to earn enough to cover one's expenses.
   • The train service averaged four trains each way on weekdays, and a single Sunday train in each direction, but though the line continued to pay its way until the first world war, immediately afterwards receipts dropped to such an extent that on February 8, 1924, a meeting was called to consider...1952 May, James I. C. Boyd, “The Ballycastle Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 342