bare necessities

Idioms  

1. Just sufficient resources, with nothing to spare. For example, The room was furnished with just the bare necessities—bed, table, chair. This idiom uses bare in the sense of “mere, and nothing else,” a usage dating from about 1200.

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Example Sentences

He lives hard, works hard, has but few comforts, and fewer necessities.

From My Native Land The United States: its Wonders, its Beauties, and its People; with Descriptive Notes, Character Sketches, Folk Lore, Traditions, Legends and History, for the Amusement of the Old and the Instruction of the Young by Cox, James

But all were kindly as they saw the family take up life bravely in Concord again, with even fewer necessities and comforts than before.

From Ten American Girls From History by Sweetser, Kate Dickinson