What does it mean to "live paycheck to paycheck"?

Does it mean a person (or family) uses up all of their income for expenses between paychecks, and have no savings at all, no investments, and maybe debt? Or, does it mean a person (or family) uses up all their paycheck income for expenses, but do have savings and investments with money that's working to make money?

are not able to increase there savings or investments!!!

Your first definition is more accurate. It means if you don't get the next paycheck then you are seriously in trouble when i comes to paying the next rent, bills and family expenses. That means no savings, investments, nada.

Its when you depend on every paycheck you get in order to remain in your current living conditions.

Like, If your rent is $500 a month, and you only get $500 every month, you wont have any leftover money to put towards next months rent.
Therefore, making you DEPEND on the next check you get.
Thus making you live "paycheck to paycheck"
Get it?

It means you have just enough in your paycheck to cover your living expenses and nothing extra to spend between checks.
No savings, investments or anything else one may draw upon in case of an emergency.

It means, by the time you spend all your money on expenses there will be nothing left for anything else.

it means being poor.

Your first selection is correct.
They live exactly that way from cheque to cheque and yes it is correctly spelled the Canadian way lol.
They have nothing to fall back on in emergency no savings, investments nothing.

i have never had to live that way but my fiances mother lives that way. it seems horrible. cuz she doesnt have much of a savings account and yes if she doesnt get a pay check she is pretty much screwed. its just a horrible way to live. you're working to pay off your bills and you cant enjoy anything for yourself.

everything that you make during a paycheck goes to bills, food, gas, random stuff, daycare... etc...

if you ran out of money then you would be on edge waiting for that next check to pay for anything else usually food.

now if you had savings in the bank or something then it really wouldn't bother you if you ran a little short with your paycheck occasionally now would it? you would probably still be able to afford your case of top ramen for the month and the kids wouldn't go starving!

I think both scenarios are correct. Living paycheck to paycheck means that your finances are so tight you don't have any carry over into the next period. You can have investments and still live paycheck to paycheck. Heck I did that when I first started working to force myself to save money. Now I still live essentially the same way, I barely have any savings (bank account wise) and I never have more than a couple hundred bucks in my checking account. But that is because virtually all left over money goes to investments. If for some reason I was terminated at my job, I would be in trouble short term, but long term I would still be o.k. In fact I would be better off then most since, most people think they need more than what they really do.
So back to your question, yes, you can live paycheck to paycheck, with out any thing, or even with investments. I just depends on your comfort level with risk.
I like risk, it pays off more. (good risk, not foolish risk)