1
general::
Phrase(s): precious few [and] precious little
very few; very little. (Few for people or things that can be counted, and little for amounts.) • We get precious few tourists here in the winter. • There’s precious little food in the house and there is no money.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
2
general::
Also, precious little. Very few, very little, as in There are precious few leaves left on the trees, or We have precious little fuel left. In these idioms precious serves as an intensive, a colloquial usage dating from the first half of the 1800s.
American Heritage Idioms