To think there's bias against single family households?

[Keyansier]

Does anyone else think this? For example: I cooked beefburgers earlier and needed baps for them but they only sell them in packs of 4. I have no need for 4 right now. It means I have been forced to open the packet only for 2 of them to go stale unless I use them before their staledate. Obviously for a family of 4, then this quantity would be fine without needing to think of this.

Also, things like rent: Does anyone think this is unequal, that 1 person has to pay the same amount of rent that a family of 4 would pay for?

I guess I am biased because I don't have any family like many on here will have, but it's always seemed unequal to me.

@Confuciusornis
I was single for ages and I couldn’t afford to live alone so I flat shared. Sometimes — shock, horror! — with strangers! I made some wonderful friends that way, and since I dated my flatmates’ friends a couple of times I could quite easily have met a partner that way too.

That's good. For you.

So what would be fair, what go you want? Baps sold individually in a packet? But that will never only cost a quarter of the 4 pack due to other costs. Or do you think you should pay less for the 4 pack because you’re at some sort of ‘disadvantage’?

May I ask, are you in a single person family household, or not? Because if you're not then I understand more why you seem to find it difficult to wonder about my post, which was the entire point when I made it.

Didn't mention anything about disadvantages, you completely made that up by yourself.

I also didn't say I think I should pay less for costs of 4 packs of anything, I asked whether society was geared more towards multi family households by the quantities they sell food in, and sell other stuff in, and whether it's bias towards single family households because of this.

You seem to have gone off on a tangent of your own imagination in your reply.

Yep, flat sharing might work if you are in your 20s.
A single woman in her 40s or 50s? Or someone with social anxiety? No thanks.

Also, there’s only 1 person in my house that eats ham. He has it for a few days, rather than open another type of sandwich meat to save wasting it. Does he want ham sandwiches 3 days in a row, probably not, but 🤷🏻‍♀️

That's fair enough, if I was single I wouldn’t want to share a home with others. But that may mean there’s other parts of life that aren’t built absolutely best for you. You adapt, like eating the same meal two days in a row or freezing food etc.

Single income adult households are always worst off.

Lets use this example of council tax..

Two houses next to each other council tax is £100 per month both houses

2 adults working ..thats £50 per person
1 adult working .. thats £75 per person after single discount

Why is a single person paying more?

Now take the same situation but the occupants are elderly and require local council social care...everyone gets the same care provided...

2 adults have paid less into the system then the single person.. how is that fair?

Anyway this is life it isn't going to change unless they bring back the poll tax

I’m a widowed parent but as I have a chest freezer it doesn’t matter that there are no good men left to share my baps, as it were 🤣

Think you're getting a hard time on here OP. Your examples were perhaps not the best but I do think there are quite a few ways things are harder for single people - council tax being an obvious one, other bills also - tv licence, Internet are going to be the same regardless of whether 1 person or 3 people use them.

Some really unkind responses and yes while life may also not be geared up to families of 5 or 6, these are choices people have presumably made. Being a single adult isn't always a lifestyle choice and can be isolating enough without also taking into account the extra costs above. I say that as a none single person.

And to the people who are suggesting house shares, are probably those luckily enough to be in relationships and have families. House sharing may have been fine in your 20s before you settled down but who wants to do that in your 50s and 60s. I have a very comfortable lifestyle with my DH but I know it would be so much harder on my own.

^^ Exactly this. FWIW, i'm a male and recently living alone for the first time but don't want to live with someone who is a complete stranger. As you said, social anxiety, elder people.. also: safety aspects and just simply personal wants and needs. The other poster's suggestion was "well if you don't like it, move a complete stranger into your home as a lodger". That is a bizarre response to me. I obviously know lodgers are a thing, but not a solution to someone asking a question about whether life is geared more towards single households.

We're a family of 6, so If I wanted these baps I'd need to buy 2 packs and then 2 go to waste.

Omg - they are blatantly biased against families if 6 with no fridges / freezers!

OP, sometimes there are loose bread rolls in supermarkets, near where they put the baguettes out. Help yourself!

...But that's exactly my point that you seem to be arguing against?

Tbh I'm probably not going to respond on this thread any more, I'm really not sure if it's me or people purposely, or not on purpose, not getting what I'm saying?? Apart from a few who seemed to have get what I'm saying.

I agree r.e the thing about rolls/baps I always tell myself ill use it but never do so forget to freeze it. I'm confused about the rent bit though surely you'd have smaller house so cheaper rent???

I agree with you OP as a single female person without children I was considered a bit wierd then I had a child at 39 and it was like being on the receiving end of everyone else's internalized resentments....whoosh... very surprised as it was 2001 and i thought society had moved on a bit.

Still hasn't too much 20 years later. Never mind if you have children or not it is bleeding obvious that the 'rent' for a 1-bed home is cheaper for 2 people or are all single people without children expected to live in bedsits or HMOs for the rest of their lives as the baseline.

Thank you very much for this, appreciate this response, I feel like you get where I'm coming from. I agree, I probably did not use the best examples but I used the example that just came to me when making the thread, but as you pointed out there's so much more to it than that and that's what I was trying to say and that people don't always realise if they are not partnered (not including you in that).

It is a minor irritation rather than a bias.

@TheHateIsNotGood
Never mind if you have children or not it is bleeding obvious that the 'rent' for a 1-bed home is cheaper for 2 people or are all single people without children expected to live in bedsits or HMOs for the rest of their lives as the baseline

Thank you. I thought this was really obvious too, how can it not be? I do feel that some people have oddly saw this as an attack from me against people who have partners and children and responding accordingly when that wasn't the case! I don't understand how people can not see this is basic logic.

I’m not arguing against, I’m asking what you want. Ham with less slices would cost more per kg because of other costs. That’s life and life is unfair for many people.

Regarding things like the tv licence which a pp mentioned, do you think it should be a certain cost per person? And council tax? Like the old poll tax? If you think these things, then say it, because I really don’t understand what you want. Unless of course you just want to say it often seems hard and more expensive to live as a single person and vent. If you’re just a big fed up, then I get that.

It is precisely because it’s basic logic that I presumed you must be saying more. Of course sharing costs is cheaper than paying for it all yourself. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm not sure it's any different than families being penalised by having to take out of term time holidays and paying extortionately for those versus single people who can holiday whenever.

I understand you OP. And when all the politicians go on about making life easier for "hard working families" it does irritate - lots of people don't have kids and are struggling too.

But as you've found here, there are so many people who think they should be supported to have children (childcare vouchers, free prescriptions, free education) but can't manage a bit of sympathy for those who are subsidising them.

I don't normally begrudge paying tax (if anything it should be higher imo) but when I hear those who get lots of state help (for their lifestyle choice) moaning about needing more while I get close to zero it gets tiresome very quickly.

The only real issues I've come across are 'family tickets' which usually state two adults two kids. But that doesn't help two parents three kids (or more) either.
As suggested , freeze what you don't use.
Most ready meal type food (tonight we had mint crusted lamb steaks) are in packs for two - which doesn't help singletons or families of three or any multiples that aren't even.
We are a family of three. This requires three bedrooms (children are teenagers and different sexes). The fact I'd be paying the same (and sharing the cost) if I had a partner sharing my room is neither here nor there - it's not a penalty for me, but it is a saving for a couple.
I also carry the cost of my car - you could go on and on that a couple pay half each what a single person pays for some things, but again that's a saving for them, not an 'added' cost to the single person.

@mondaytosunday
I also carry the cost of my car - you could go on and on that a couple pay half each what a single person pays for some things, but again that's a saving for them, not an 'added' cost to the single person.

Maybe I'm just not getting this, as I've already said, but how is a single person paying costs for a car the same expense as 2 people paying the costs for the same car?? And same with bills, etc?

I think there’s probably something most of us feel is unfair about what we get/payout whatever our circumstances are.

My partner has a friend that’s single, no kids and probably won’t have any. He earns a high wage and jokes about paying taxes for all the rest of us to have kids and educate them etc. He doesn’t get much back really for what he puts in but that’s part of living in society I suppose. He’ll need those kids to be his doctors, carers, binmen, Tesco workers one day. Maybe something more should be done to help struggling single people, I certainly wouldn’t be against it, everyone should be able to have a decent standard of living.

My ‘it’s unfair’ moan would be that we don’t get child benefit as my partner earns ‘too much’, but if his wage was divided between us, we’d get it, like my BIL and his wife do. And they pay less tax. So despite our gross income being the same, they have more of their wages and child benefit. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I’m not moaning though as I know we’re very fortunate. It’s just an example of things not being fair in the system.