Living alone is tough financially

Why do you think everybody has a spare friend who they can share with? Or has the room / desire to live their life with a stranger?

That’s a huge problem in society though - that it takes sharing to afford a property.

Are you talking about living alone or being single as they aren’t quite the same.

The council tax 25% off made sense to me when I looked up how it was calculated (as opposed to 50% off). Still a big cost though!

I have lived alone for years, then shared now live alone again.

Financially it is crippling I agree - there us such s tax on being single.

Flip side is emotionally and mentally I far prefer not having people in my living space.

So I tell myself I need to earn more money and increase my investments!

Who hear thinks we should live in a fair society? All of us right.. so is this fair...

Single people no dependents...no tax breaks, bottom of list of benefits or lucky to get any at all.

Single or a couple with dependents lots of benefits and support and tax breaks or sharing of tax allowances

When you go shopping anything cheaper or on offer is more than single person needs. Try buying food for a Single person so it won't be wasted and you pay more. Often better to buy a bigger packet and end up wasting it.

Council tax only 25% off

Is that a fair society?

For those living as couples who say it's hard financially, why don't you take in a lodger to make life easier?

What, your DC wouldn't have their own room? Well, according to some on here, that's not a problem if you're a single person with DC. You're making a choice to have a place with room for your kids.

Expecting to have a place with a bedroom for yourself and at least another for your DC is not an unreasonable expectation, whether partnered up or single.

It's not a race to the bottom and just because one set of people find things tricky, doesn't mean they shouldn't get help just because a different group of people find things tricky for different reasons.

Living on your own is more expensive. Fact. Some of the solutions given by people on here would not save any money. My eldest pays more than double in rent for his room in a shared house at university in comparison to my mortgage, partly due to location, partly due to the fact I bought a house that needed a lot of with and have spent time renovating it (myself).

I'm in my late 40s. I left an abusive marriage with next to nothing, despite being the one who carried most of the financial brunt during that marriage. I can't save to top up my pension, which is woefully inadequate as I've had to start again from scratch.

As I said in an earlier post, I'm lucky in comparison to many, but being able to afford housing with sufficient space to give DC a (shared) room should be a basic minimum expectation in mid/later life, not a luxury.

Be careful, @mrsm43s will be here to tell you how it’s a LUXURY to catch a train and be able to eat a meal. And that you should walk everywhere because it’s your choice to be catching a train. And just don’t eat out? Watch your friends eat their meal whilst you sit starving in silence.

Trains.

I went out with friends who have a two together rail card. Their train tickets cost £122 for both. My ticket cost £96.

There's no railcard for single people aged between 30-60 with no disabilities or not a veteran.

They also paid half for their dinner as they had the meerkat meals app. I paid full price for mine.

Sorry, did you miss the bit where having a lodger would cost me my home?

It is expensive. Mostly that expense is unavoidable tho. I certainly wouldn't consider sharing now, having lived alone most of my adult life.

I do wish hotels had more single rooms, and council tax was per adult rather than per household but most housing related costs its hard to work out how to do it differently.

Stop using the word luxury to describe someone’s living conditions!

A home is not a fucking luxury. It’s a basic need. Yes, some homes are more luxurious than others but it’s hardly equivalent to an all exclusive trip to the Maldives!

Rent is the killer. Our son is having to pay over half his wages for a tiny one bed flat, and that's without council tax, electricity, water rates, broadband, insurance, etc. When you factor in all that and foods etc., he's barely got anything left for fun. And that's on a pretty good wage. All because of the housing shortage and having to live in an expensive northern city full of student lets and holiday homes which have soaked up far too many homes that people could have lived in.

Some of his colleagues are living in hostels because they've been unable to find anywhere cheap enough to rent (again, not minimum wage jobs, these are graduate jobs at a large employer). Others are living on sofas. Heaven knows how single people on minimum wage manage unless they're lucky enough to be able to find a job close to home and can continue living with parents.

I agree with you...I work in a school too - full time day job and evenings on a zero hours contract.

When I was married and my daughter was small my then H worked a rolling 4 day on/off shift and I worked 4 days a week school hours. We filled in the gaps with nursery and a bit of help from the grandparents, and then with breakfast and after school clubs.

I used the word may because the possibilities depend on factors beyond being simply being a single parent.

That is a choice you are quite at liberty to make. But you have to understand the luxury of that choice (a property to yourself plus a spare room) comes at a cost. You're choosing to pay more to get more. Your choice. You can't expect to have a property to yourself with a spare room and only expect it to cost you what 2 people sharing one property without a spare room pay each.

It really is! I lived alone for five years when I was aged around 27-32 and unfortunately that was the age where all my friends rented with partners and were saving for a house. I desperately wanted to save but couldn’t, and some of them seemed to struggle to get why.

My explanation always was… there are two salaries in your household and so half the bills pp. I am one salary and full bills. Let’s just hypothetically say we all come out with £2000 after tax every month, and rent and bills come to £1200. A couple bring in £4000 between them, once tneyve paid their bills they have £2800 left over to spend and save. A single person only has £800 left over to spend and save. So of course the couple are going to be able to save so much more, and also have so much more to spend.
Obviously everyone has varying salaries and outgoings but this explanation helped put things into perspective a bit.

I am living with my partner now and find it so much easier financially!

yes a single person may have more earning opportunities than a couple raising a child/children

As a single parent I find this kind of statement utterly infuriating. Two people can work around each other. Sure, it will take it's toll on a relationship but the bottom line is two x 40 hours plus a week is better than 1 x 40 hours plus a week. I worked full time teacher from my youngest being 3. I also do exam marking (so seasonal work) and I continue to tutor when the work is available (it can be hit and miss - right now I don't have enough hours in the day and am turning work down but post exam season, I will have to start again!). I even set up my own holiday club which runs for 3 out of 6 weeks in the summer. I side hustle because I have no choice - no financial support from the ex. But the idea that having children somehow exempts you from finding additional work or having a partner means you can't work around each other is beyond ridiculous. So many people moaning about the cost of living and doing sod all to help themselves.

Agreed. I'm coming up to 60 and the last thing I want is to have to share with a bunch of people I'm not related to. Where would DD and her DP sleep when they visit, or am I expected never to have them under the same roof as me, even just for a weekend, ever again? Also under the terms of my tenancy agreement I'm not allowed lodgers so that's out. "Just share" is not the magic solution some think it is.

Single living alone here. Yes, all the bills are mine. But I can eat beans on toast every night for a week if I want to save money, turn the hot water and heating down (or off) without having anyone moaning that they are 'cooooolllld'; can go to bed early to save electricity etc. So yes, it's more expensive that splitting the bills, but I can mitigate them under my own control.

I find the worst things are the totally unexpected expenses, like when the toilet breaks. I flushed with a bucket for six weeks before I could get someone out to fix it (I suppose if I lived with someone they would have complained about that as well and probably made it MY job to sort it out. My view might be coloured by having lived with some hopeless men and also being a single parent for years).

Agree. I’ve got a young adult son who stays over at times plus friends who come for weekends etc. How does that happen if I’m in a house share?

Like others have said, in my 50’s I’m hardly going to be looking at sharing my space with someone else who I’m not either in a relationship with or I gave birth to.

Yes it is expensive to live alone but I’ve learned to cut my cloth accordingly as the benefits far outweigh the negatives

The current UK rental situation in the private sector is scary - rents went up 9% last year and I'm sure they're all going to go up again this year. Then you have the very real issue of ageism when you're applying for that houseshare and the fact there isn't as much out there as there was two years ago or more because a lot of landlord have sold up.

Also - unless you earn a pretty big salary, chances are your rent is going to take up one third of your take home pay in that share, then you've got your share of the utility bills, your travel costs. Sure it's cheaper than living alone, but let's not pretend it's some kind of financial nirvana, especially in middle-age.

It isn’t massively different to two sisters but come on. How many families are there with at least one sibling who is long term single, prepared to live with you and where you both live in the same area?

Likewise the two friends renting the apartment. That can work well when you’re both young and single and happy to be so. It changes when one gets in a relationship, often with little warning. This happened to me actually; I’m still good friends with my flatmate but being left responsible for rent in Paris alone isn’t an experience I’d like to repeat!

I agree, OP. It’s very hard.

I’m a single parent and financial worries are the biggest thing that keeps me awake, even though I earn very well!

There's other ways to share space than "living with multiple strangers". See my previous post on this.

I don't think sharing my space with my husband is that different to the two sisters who share the next door property, or my two friends who rent a 2 bed 2 bathroom apartment together really? Except that if DH lost his job, I'd be expected to cover all costs alone, whereas in the other situations benefits would kick in and one housemate wouldn't have to subsidise the other. Plus we also have 2 dependent children to pay for.

You don’t think it’s a ridiculous suggestion. You don’t think women and men in their fifties, sixties, seventies, should ever be able to own a flat or house, have a little garden, have a kitchen that isn’t shared with strangers, a bathroom likewise? You honestly think that’s OK?