Reliable, cheap accommodation, say, containing study (5-3-6)
I believe the answer is:
bread-and-butter
'reliable cheap' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'accommodation say containing study' is the wordplay.
'accommodation' becomes 'bandb' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'say' becomes 'utter' (to utter something is to speak or say it).
'containing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'study' becomes 'read' (synonyms).
'bandb'+'utter'='bandbutter'
'bandbutter' placed around 'read' is 'BREAD-AND-BUTTER'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for bread-and-butter that I've seen before include "Materialistic, practical" , "standard" , "livelihood" , "Living" , "Basic" .)