bring home the bacon

1. Earn a living, provide the necessities of life, as in Now that she had a job, Patricia could bring home the bacon .

2. Be successful, accomplish something of value, as in George went to Washington and brought home the bacon—he got the funding we needed . Although the earliest citation for this phrase in the Oxford English Dictionary dates from 1924, the term is widely believed to come from the much older game of catching a greased pig, a popular competition at country fairs in which the winner was awarded the pig.