Making Ends Meat or Meet?

You've all heard someone say "We're just trying to make ends meet." But where did it come from: A sausage maker during the depression, or is it more of an account saying? Detective Thomas VanMelum dug deep into this sausage fest and came out with nothing but answers: undeniably subjective answers.

First of all, the saying is "Make ends meet." But I assume all you guys and gals are smart and that is a moo point (PS check out this link if you have never seen that 'Friends' episode). Many people on the internet were arguing that a sausage maker, during the depression, was so poverty stricken, that he had to use vegetable proteins in half of his sausage product so he could make the two sausage ends meet. I can only thing of one reason why you would want two sausages to meet, and it has a lot to do with The Village People and the song "It's Raining Men."

Now, that being said, there is another camp that claims two ends meeting is an account saying. Where, when an accountant is trying to balance a ledger, it is important that the end of the "income section" meet with the end of the "expenses" section -- meaning a person or company isn't spending more than they are making. Both of these deal with hard times, hence the actually meaning of the phrase, but one thing tips the scales for me. A conversation had in a Jane Austen's Mansfield Park book, written in the 1800's (well before the depression) goes something like, "If I can make both ends meet, that's all I ask for." 


You be the judge! Seriously, don't let anyone tell you what you should think. Except Judge Judy, that bitch doesn't shut up.