noun
food expenses; cost of one's board
Refers to the money needed to cover one's meals or the cost of being fed, often in the context of supporting oneself or another person.
彼は自分の食い扶持を稼ぐためにアルバイトを始めた。
He started a part-time job to earn his own food expenses.
子供が増えると食い扶持も
When you have more children, the cost of feeding them increases.
食費 is a more general and common term for food expenses, while 食い扶持 emphasizes the cost of supporting someone's meals, often with a nuance of livelihood.
Compound of 食い (kui, 'eating', the continuative form of 食う) and 扶持 (fuchi, 'support, allowance, stipend'). The term originally referred to a stipend or allowance for food, and by extension came to mean the cost of one's board.