Nickeled and Dimed to death

[LurkMeister]

This has been gnawing at the back of my mind for years.
The phrase "nickeled and dimed (to death)" is used to indicate small charges or fees which eventually add up to "real money". As far as I know, the words nickel and dime are used to designate only the American and Canadian five- and ten-cent coins, which leads to my question:

What is the equivalent of this phrase in other cultures?

Originally I was curious about the British equivalent, but then I started thinking about how it would translate in non-English-speaking countries. I've tried doing searches to no avail, coming up only with usages of the original phrase in various sources (although there was one source where a Canadian used it in conjunction with "Loonied and Twonied" which I took to be an updated version based on the one- and two-dollar coins now used Up North). So I figured I'd throw it in here and see what kind of response I get.

[100%]

I haven't heard that one (or an equivalent) in australia.

I think if someone were to say it as Nickled and Dimed, then ppl would know what they meant.

When i read "Nickeled and Dimed to death" i thought this post would be about people dropping coins off of high buildings.

[Mame]

How about "Nibbled to death by ducks"?

Or "Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves"? Now there's a phrase that never made the transition to metric currency.

[Schnitte]

In German, there is a phrase that's translated as "Someone who doesn't honor the penny isn't worth the taler [taler: medieval coin of high value]". Additionally, there's the phrase "little livestock makes dung as well". I think both come very close to that meaning.

[Mangetout]

Originally posted by Mame
"Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves"? Now there's a phrase that never made the transition to metric currency.

Um, I don't understand what you mean.

[samclem]

I think that Mame may have meant to say decimilization instead of metric.

Or do you mean you don't understand what the saying meant?

[Dr. Lao]

But since both pennies (or, more properly, pence) and pounds are still around in Britain's decimilized currency, how has the phrase lost its meaning? Or maybe I'm missing something as well.

[CurtC]

Schnitte wrote:
[taler: medieval coin of high value]

From which we get the word "dollar."

[Kamino Neko]

Originally posted by Dr. Lao
But since both pennies (or, more properly, pence) and pounds are still around in Britain's decimilized currency, how has the phrase lost its meaning? Or maybe I'm missing something as well.

That makes 3 of us...

[casdave]

We in the UK do not tend to use the term pennies to describe our smallest currency denomination.

When we went about decimalisation we had to find a way of distinguishing between pennies and the new units, so we called them 'new pence'.

The 'new' bit seems to have dropped out of use but we still use the term 'pence', and you do not often hear the terms 'pennies' or 'penny' used any more.

[Mame]

Boy, have I been unclear. "Take care of the pennies etc" refers to little things adding up to big things, as in the OP, but my guess is that its origin is in saving, rather in paying.

The user info under my user name says "Australia", not Britain. Australia has used decimal currency since, if I remember the jingle correctly, 14 February 1966 (another brain cell gone that I had a better use for). What I meant by "a phrase that never made the transition to metric currency" was that the saying uses the old imperial currency, not the decimal currency with which most of the population is familiar. We do not say "take care of the cents and the dollars will take care of themselves", or equivalent.

I take it the saying is not used in Britain?

[Mangetout]

I have heard the term in use, even used it myself, but not a great deal.

We do tend to use the term 'pence' when talking about prices, but a collection of one penny coins would never be called 'a jar of pence' - always 'pennies'.

Back to the OP: the term that I think I'd have heard the most would be 'death of a thousand cuts'.