A shoestring is literally a string or lace used to tie shoes, but it's most commonly used in phrases that describe doing something with very little money or resources.

When someone runs a business on a shoestring budget, they're managing with barely enough money to keep going. A school play produced on a shoestring might use homemade costumes and painted cardboard sets instead of expensive materials. The idea is that if you had to sell everything you owned, you'd be left with almost nothing, maybe just the laces from your shoes.

Today, when someone does something impressive on a shoestring, it suggests resourcefulness and creativity. Starting a successful company on a shoestring budget means the founder found clever ways to succeed without much money, perhaps working from home, borrowing equipment, or building things themselves.

People sometimes call a narrow, last-minute victory a shoestring catch in baseball, when a fielder snags the ball just before it hits the ground, or a shoestring tackle in football, when a defender barely grabs a runner by the ankle. These uses suggest something thin, precarious, and barely sufficient, just like operating with almost no resources.