。
She tried to make ends meet on her meager salary, but it was no use.
Literal
[topic-は] meager salary [with-で] make-do tried [but-が], futile was.
やりくりする is a vivid colloquial verb meaning 'to manage/juggle finances or resources' — typically used for stretching tight money or time budgets. The pattern verb-volitional + とする ('try to do X') shows attempted action that didn't necessarily succeed. The clause-final が here is the contrastive 'but' connector — softer than けど in flavor, often appearing in slightly more formal or written contexts. 無駄 ('waste, futility') is a な-adjective frequently used to label efforts that didn't pay off.