on the breadline vs poor as a church mouse

on the breadline

prep
  • In a situation of extreme poverty; relying on food donations or having only enough to survive. 

poor as a church mouse

adj
  • Very poor, to the point of starving or begging; utterly destitute. 

How often have the words on the breadline and poor as a church mouse occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )