Roughly when did one salary stop being enough to comfortably sustain an average family?

[keswickgirl]

I realise there won’t be one exact year of course. All I know is that my dad bought a very nice 4 bedroomed house on a headteacher’s salary in the early 90s, my mum didn't work and my sister and I had very comfortable childhoods. UK holiday every year and abroad every few years. Pets, dancing, swimming, piano, tennis lessons.

30 years later, it’s such a different story. Roughly when did things change?

In 1960's my Dad worked full time and often a bit of overtime too. My Mum was a professional housewife. She cooked all meals from scratch, baked twice a week, every week it was pastry on Tuesdays and cakes on Fridays. She did all laundry, all sewing virtually all childcare for me and my sisters. We went on holiday in UK or to Jersey most years. My 2 Aunties who lived closely and neither had DC of their own helped us out by treating us DC to things. One Aunt bought us a comic each every week and crisps. The other Aunt took us to Saturday morning cinema and treated us if the fair, circus or similar came to town. She also had a car and we didn't, so she drove us to the beach and other nice places. We never went without things although as an adult I can appreciate that was partly down to my Aunties too. There was always plenty of food and basics though.

Round us house prices flew up in early 2000s. We both worked full time in 1997 but bought a house when we were 24 without really saving a deposit. We were only young in rubbish jobs both earning around £12-£15k each. Our first house cost £34k and was very manageable on our salaries with a new car and cheap foreign package holidays a few times a year. Now the same jobs would pay £28-£30k each but that house is worth £300k. So the salaries have only doubled but the house price has gone up 9 x in value. It’s not surprising people are struggling to get on property ladder

Long before that, I would say. 70s probably. A family could live on one salary but it wasn’t fun. Caravan holidays, running through the rain to the toilet block. Endless mince dinners, struggling and saving for small things, no meals out, ever.
split houses with grandparents/tenants living upstairs.

One warm room despite having central heating (only on minimally).All DIY by mum and dad.
Every mum I knew, worked. Part time, term time, but where they could, they worked. Their wages made life better.
My father was a Senior Civil Servant, we weren’t well off at all.
We were fine but they were by no means halcyon days.
NB 40 years ago was 1985. Far fewer housewives than in previous decades. I knew people who had years off with little kids but they went back to work.

Why? 150k or so is an excellent combined income even in London. Certainly sufficient to afford a large house, a few holidays abroad each year, private pensions and investments.

Unless of course one wants to live in South Kensington, send their kids to private schools and go skiing in Zermatt every Christmas.

I was thinking about this earlier. In my lifetime (born ‘81) the cost of essentials like housing, utilities, education has gone up massively. Meanwhile the cost and availability of luxuries has come down dramatically.
We now have latte sipping twice-a-year holidayers on their iPhones with no way of ever being able to afford their own home. And they would barely be any closer even if they lived like nuns. Madness.

Yeap.

I really don’t think you can generalise.

I was born in the early 50’s. My Dad had 2 jobs, and my Mum did sewing at home. My sister and I shared a room, as one bedroom was occupied by a lodger. We did have a holiday in the UK each year, and were well cared for, but without luxuries. We didn’t have a car either.

A head teacher’s salary would achieve that now. Uk hol and other more low key expectations. You wouldn’t starve.

Watch this for a good explanation on the subject:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DG1j7-_yvnt/?igsh=djg3ejR6YmNoZjl2

The mortgage rate was 13.5% in the early ‘90s and unemployment rates through the roof. The grass is always greener..?

Women entered the workforce. So lots of families had 2 incomes. So rather than life costing one salary, life started costing 2 salaries.

Inevitable outcome of women entering the workforce in numbers. Not saying it’s a bad thing- it wasn’t. It’s just economics.

I had my two youngest DC in the 1998 and 2000, I was a SAHM because my DH was on really good money but it was rare then. I’m 55 and both my parents needed to work.

It depends where you are but in the northern city we live in a HT could easily buy a nice 4 bed and sustain a family comfortably. Very few of our friends consist of 2 parents who work full time.

It hasn't really if you don't expect to have it all. A headteachers salary still covers a reasonable family lifestyle in my opinion if you aren't greedy. I support my family on a similar wage with a partner who works part time. We don't worry about keep up with the Jonses and we manage fine. Our house is unkempt and small but we have cash to spend on things that are important to us. It would be churlish to complain. We need to raise taxes and bring people on minimum wage to the same place, and stop whinging about how people before had it easier.

My parents bought their first and second homes on only my dad's salary as mum was a SAHP 70's/80's. (They could only get a mortgage from the building society on my dad's basic income, excluding any overtime/bonuses, at least for their first home anyhow).

By the time it was me moving out I think it had become common for both partners to be working to afford a comparable home. Certainly the case for me.

Minimum wage was introduced in UK in 1999. In the late 80's I worked 11 hours and earnt £11.08. I was in 6th form. Full time at the same shop I earnt c£42 when I covered holidays.

When I graduated, I bought my first house (2 bed quasi semi) in 1991 it was £26k and I earned £18k. Interest rates were 11%. I would say def by then 2 parents needed to work. But most families had 2 workers in the 70's that's why gen x is the latch key generation - noone to take you or pick you up from school. Young kids - c4yo upwards walking to and from school on their own with a key round the neck of the eldest kid in the family, which might have been the 4yo. Foreign holidays weren't common in those days, so those earnings clearly went on keeping the family going.

I know the current generation think they're hard done by and obvs getting onto the property ladder is extremely hard, but back in 80s and 90s, property prices moved slowly. Now you could buy a house and a short time later you've made £50-£100k on it, so it's definitely swings and roundabouts.

A head teachers salary starts at £55k, so it’s perfectly possible to live comfortably on that today. Many of us survive on much less. I earn nothing like that, and don’t feel as if we are deprived of anything. I have a mortgage to pay, but I still manage to have a night out every now and again, my kids are fed and clothed, and we have a holiday every year, in addition to one or two short breaks every year. I drive an old banger and don’t have expensive phone contracts/ car payments/ fastest broadband and Sky TV.

In the late 70s and early 80s, my dad bought a 3 bedroom house for around 27k and was earning £400 a month and my mum didn’t work.
They still managed to go on holiday but never went out for food/coffee etc…
Sadly dad passed away but it did give my mum even more financial security as the house got paid off and she had extra money to live off whilst raising us.
When she sold the house it was £60k but had she held onto it for a few more years it would’ve been worth £200k. She was warned not to sell then as it was when the market crashed but she pressed on. Mum was never great with money or making sound financial decisions. But she was able to raise two kids on her own living off benefits for the most part of her life.

I would say it was early 80s - after the Tories began selling off council housing. Before that, rents were at a level that those on low and medium pay could still get by. The exponential increase in the cost of either renting or buying has created a huge mess for everyone.

Maybe that depends where you are in the country? We live what I would say is a normal life - no takeaways , no cars on finance, no gym memberships, no Klarna, no trips abroad, no weekends away. We spend our money on mortgage, childcare, bills, a few treats, and saving for a rainy day. Most people we know here in NW England are the same.

I know from personal experience that most older solicitors at the high street firms I worked at had sent their kids to private school in the 90s with one solicitor parent and the other parent working but not necessarily at the same level. I certainly couldn’t afford to send my kids to private school when I had them and we both work and earn decent salaries. Most likely due to housing being more expensive and cost of living expenses increasing I guess. I’d say things changed after the late 90s.

She lived off benefits most of her life??

Imagine if everyone did that. Who would pay for it?

We bought our first house in 1985, 2 bed semi, new estate, both worked full time. 8 years later sold house for double price.

2000 bought a 3 bed semi for £62K, both worked full time, sold 2012 for £140K. The house is now £240K.

Let's face it, house prices will never go down - same as everything else. Whilever people keep buying new houses or moving up ladders the prices will go up.

I don't know how people are surviving 🙅‍♀️

Aside from everything getting more expensive, I feel that our expectations have changed. As children in th 70's a car was a luxury and neither my family or anybody else that we knew owned their own home, we had a cheap uk caravan holiday if we were lucky. Clothes and shoes were purchased once or twice a year with clothing handed down amongst friends and family. We never went to the cinema or had any days out. My dad worked full time, mum part time. Today all of the above is expected, we expect to have nice phones, nice holidays own our homes and to be able to treat our children, this isn't always possible on one wage

I'm 63, and the rot started when thatcher got in.