make it vs pay the bills

make it

verb
  • To succeed in surviving, in living through something. 

  • Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see make, it. 

  • To have sexual intercourse; do it. 

  • To succeed in doing something, for example in reaching a place, going somewhere, attending an event, arriving in time for something, adding to one's schedule or itinerary, or in getting where one wants to be in one's life or career, which sometimes means becoming or wanting to become successful (succeed in a big way) or famous. 

pay the bills

verb
  • To provide enough income to sustain one's lifestyle. 

How often have the words make it and pay the bills occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )