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?

I do think it’s true we eat out way more and buy way more clothes (and coffee!) and spend more on gyms and mid range grooming, all of which are expensive (albeit the clothes are cheaper).

But a lot of the big ticket items on the rest of your list was either normal for a middle class family in the 80s/90s (tumble drier, fitted kitchen, holiday abroad, lots of kids activities), aren’t as expensive as they were (tech) or are still seen as luxuries (lots of foreign holidays, expensive pets and sports, expensive cosmetic treatments)

No, it takes your friend two salaries. Plenty of people manage all that on a single salary of around £ £70 - 80 thousand.

Direct comparisons are almost impossible. One family will prioritise holidays so spend less on eating out, expensive clothes and make up et. Another won't care about holidays but may spend more on expensive cars and electronics. Some families spend more on things you can see and others on quality items you may not realise cost more.

We bought on one salary in the 90s. My daughter bought on one salary in the not too distant past but we were on average salary and my dd is way over average. Plus we both live in areas of cheaper housing costs.

@Aaron95 I agree that by both parties working, a lot of the extra income is spent on things that were more unusual to pay for years ago.

My DCs were born in 1995 & 1997. I went part time after DC1 and gave up work completely when DC2 was 2. I have never had a cleaner, a dog (therefore no pet plan, dog walker, vets fees), takeaways were a very rare treat, I have always cooked from scratch since giving up work, holidays were in the UK for the 1st few years but then 1 trip abroad would be the norm but not to anywhere exotic. And of course once I was at home there was no childcare to pay for. So taking away the fact that a woman giving up work will lose career progression and possibly pension contributions, monthly expenditure could be a lot less if one party doesn't work. Obviously that also depends on house prices where you live, but my DS has recently bought a 2 bed house on his sole (not huge) salary.

I think in poor families both parents had to work. My mum was born in the 40s and her family were very poor. Both had to work and they still had no money. Her dad used to get her clothes from people's dustbins (he was a dustman).

Depends where you live, we managed fine on one income in the 00’s on a normal income (early £30k’s). In some parts of the country it is still possible on £40k or there abouts

It's not just women working and being able to borrow. There's more people but not more land to build houses on. When demand outstrips supply, prices rise.

We have friends now where the dad is a HT at a state school and mum stays at home. They have 3 kids, a big detached house and generally seem pretty well off. No idea how much he earns.

If you honestly think a headteacher's salary is 'average' then you were already out of touch in the 90s!
It's a senior managerial role. Even a teacher is (and was) would be above the average salary. Your lifestyle was upper middle class, not the standard.

I think I probably over-complicated my question by sharing my personal experience, which is really a red herring because of course there has always been poverty and wealth inequality.

I suppose a better question would have been “How is it that the cost of living seems so much greater today compared to 30years ago and when did this change happen (Liz Truss, Brexit and Ukraine war notwithstanding)”

I don't think many could at any time unless the man was earning a really good salary. All my friends had both parents working and their standard of living was much higher than mine. My DPs struggled because my DM refused to work and we didn't have the common things my friends had.

Late 90’s was probably the last time you could buy a house in Greater London on one average salary (just speaking anecdotally). House prices started to shoot up after that - I was a SAHM at that time. The house we bought then has increased in price around 6-700%. We were incredibly lucky with the timing although it seemed a huge stretch financially at the time!

I suspect a lot of those were "little jobs" around the children though - as a dinner lady, or a few hours in a shop, potentially for extra luxuries, not necessities.

My Mum was SAHM to 2 kids in the 90s, 3 bed detached house in SE bought on 1 salary. Dad was an engineer but in the oil industry so guessing the wage was good.

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s mortgage rates were much higher than they are today. We both needed to work in fairly high powered jobs to support 3 children and buy a house in SE England. Not London.

My daughters both took a year off when they had their children. combined mat leave and paid leave. I do envy them that bonding time, I took 3 months for each of mine.
Don't say I shouldn't have had 3 children but no. 3 was a surprise and we don't regret it for 1 minute.

I’ve often thought that one of the biggest reason in the house prices between my parents generation and ours is the mass entering of women into the workplace. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation, but I would have thought that house prices will always rise to what what the average family’s income is. Before the usual set up was the one income family but now it’s two. This puts single parents at a massive disadvantage
I could be wrong as it’s not something I’ve ever seen used as an explanation

The rise and rise of women’s employment in the UK | Institute for Fiscal Studies

The 70s is your answer.

Should we blame Kirstie and Phil? When we all started looking at property as a way to make money?

possibly when house prices tripled in 3 years in the early 2000s

I know we (bought in 1998) lived comfortably on one salary for our children's entire childhoods - in fact the older one wasn't quite 18 when we moved to living off redundancy and savings, and I didn't find a job for over 4 years after that.

Mainly because what people consider “living” has been drastically inflated over the Past 30-50 years. Lifestyle expectations have increased dramatically.

My parents on low wages ( but both full time, except my mum finished in time to pick us up from school ) bought in the mid 60s and definitely needed both salaries with two lodgers as well. They bought a 3 bed terrace.

Although my mum finished her day job early to pick us up when my dad got home from work she went out again to do a night cleaning shift.

My dh bought a run down flat in the late 80s on his salary alone ( Architect )but he needed to rent a room out to afford the mortgage.
We then bought together ( 2 x Architects ) in 2000 but we had to move to a cheap area to afford a house @£107,000. [ It needed masses of work having been rented for over 20years, it had pebble dashed ceilings, no internal doors and a flood in the basement for example ]

Im not sure it’s been possible for one person to afford much in terms of property for a long time.

This, but also expectations that every child will have its own room, multiple bathrooms, upmarket kitchens, tumble dryers and freezers. I’ve seen people right here on mumsnet refer to a 10-year-old kitchen as “dated and in need of replacement.”

I'd say mid-1980s. It was when store cards and credit cards became easily available, and people started to live beyond their means.

This page has a graph that shows you. It looks like things started taking off around 1998-2001.

https://www.finder.com/uk/mortgages/historical-price-tracker

You do realise being on £70-80k isn't the norm, right? For one person, I mean.