Not much butter or jam (6)
I believe the answer is:
scrape
'jam' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
I cannot understand how the remainder of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for scrape that I've seen before include "Predicament - abrasion" , "Use last remaining resource - . . . . . . the barrel" , "Capers (anag.)" , "Difficult predicament" , "hole" .)