1 returning little in exchange for great effort : her uncle’s hardscrabble peanut farm.
2 characterized by chronic poverty and hardship : the hardscrabble coal town of Grundy, Virginia.
From SMH: Those who live in the eastern suburbs rarely venture beyond the CBD if they can help it. Those from the northern beaches think they have found nirvana, the North Shore knows it has, and the western suburbs take pride in their mostly hardscrabble existence.