Cut your coat according to your cloth.

A coat can only be made from the cloth at hand. The image urges people to size an undertaking to what they actually have, rather than to what they wish they had.

The broader advice is to keep ambitions and expenses within practical limits. If resources are scarce, a modest plan that can be completed is wiser than an elaborate one that cannot.

Use the proverb when advising someone to scale back a purchase, project, or commitment to fit their budget or other available resources. It can also support choosing a workable alternative over an unaffordable ideal.