Are you financially better off single?

Couples can split bills and share a room at home as well as on holiday, but does that mean you’re always richer as half of a pair? We take a look to see if you might be better off single.

Whether you’re looking for love or already coupled-up, which is likely to be better for your bank account?

Here, we take a deep dive into a range of scenarios to compare how much you might spend on housing, bills, childcare and travel, depending whether you are single or in a couple, with or without children.

In this article, we look at the following scenarios:

• Single and living alone
• Single and living in a flatshare
• In a couple living apart and together
• Single parenting
• Living as a couple with children

Single and living alone

This is likely to be one of the toughest scenarios to be in financially. Living alone means you don’t have anybody to share bills with and that makes life significantly more expensive.

If you’re renting a UK home, you’ll be shelling out an average of £1,260 a month, according to HomeLet’s rental index report for January. If you’re living in the capital, however, this number can soar.

It’s worth noting that if you’re single and living alone, it is also likely to be tougher to get on the property ladder. This is because the calculations using only a single income means mortgage lenders will offer you a smaller loan, as your ability to make repayments will be more limited. 

Read more: Should I buy or rent a house?

When it comes to bills, living alone will mean you might use less electricity and gas – but not half the amount. After all, the cost of heating a room or lighting is the same no matter how many people are in it.

According to Unbiased, the average combined total electricity and gas bill for a one-bedroom flat comes to £120 a month. The average Band D council tax bill is £172 a month, according to the government’s website. The good news is that adults living alone can claim a 25% discount off their council tax bill, taking this figure down to £129. This means that electricity, gas and council tax total £249 a month.

Holidays are also likely to cost more if you’re single. If you want to book a hotel room or an Airbnb, you have nobody to share expenses with. 

Research published by consumer website Which? last year found that solo travellers can be charged far more than the per-person cost when travelling as a couple.

For a week’s all-inclusive trip to Majorca, departing in June with Tui, Which? was quoted £840 per person for two people sharing, and was even offered an upgrade to a larger, one-bedroom apartment for the same price. However, a solo traveller would pay £1,448 for the same package, without the added benefit of an upgraded room – that’s a staggering 70 per cent more.+

Total monthly cost: £1,605

Rent: £1,260
Bills: £249
Holiday: £1,148, averaging £95.60 a month
Childcare: £0

Single and living in a flatshare

By living in a flatshare, a single person can substantially cut their housing costs. However, this generally means renting, unless they purchase a home and rent out one of the rooms or buy with a friend or relative rather than a significant other. Renting, as previously mentioned, bears significant disadvantages over purchasing a home, and generally ends up costing you more in the long run.

According to flatmate-finding website Spare Room, the average rent for a bedroom in a UK home is £739 a month. As with most other expenses, this figure jumps in the capital to a staggering £1,014.

One benefit of flat sharing is being able to split bills. According to Unbiased, the average total annual electricity and gas bill for a three-bedroom house in the UK comes to £167 a month. Split between three people, this comes to £56 each. Meanwhile, for a Band D property, each member of the household would have to pay £57 a month in council tax.

Total monthly cost: £947.60

Rent: £739
Bills: £113
Holiday: £95.60
Childcare: £0

In a couple but living apart

This scenario has a few advantages compared to a single person living alone. Housing costs and bills will remain more or less unchanged, but coupling up is likely to make holidays significantly cheaper, as the cost of hotel rooms can be split in two. 

This is where a difference in incomes can first become noticeable; if you’re earning more than your partner, you might feel a sense of obligation to pay for more things. While this can be a way of still doing nice things with your partner, you might end up feeling stretched financially. If you do, it’s worth communicating your concerns because, of course7, it’s always possible to do nice things together on a budget.

Generally, while it’s possible that being in a relationship can lead to you spending more money, many would argue that the quality time is absolutely worth it. If it isn’t, you might want to consider finding lower-cost activities or, perhaps, they just aren’t the right partner for you.

Total monthly cost per person: £1,579

Rent: £1,260
Bills: £249
Holiday: £840, averaging £70 a month
Childcare: £0

Read more: Eight money tips for healthy relationships

In a couple living together

Living with a partner can often be a big money saver – though this is assuming that you’ll be splitting costs more or less evenly. 

If you’re renting, you would expect to pay an average of £630 each a month for a UK home. Council tax, electricity and gas will cost £292 between you on average, or £146 each. This adds up to £776, far less than the £1,509 you’d shell out on rent and bills if you were living in the same property alone. 

In addition, as outlined above, you’re likely to benefit from cheaper holidays. 

While it may not be worth it to move in with your partner just to save a bit of money, the financial advantage is evident.

Things can get a little bit more complicated if you have only one income between the two of you. 

This is likely to increase the financial burden on the individual earning more money. If there is a sizable gap between your incomes, you could opt to divide up rent and bills proportionally. Even if one of you is covering two thirds of the costs, as a couple you’re still likely to be saving money compared to living on your own.

Total monthly cost per person: £846

Rent: £630
Bills: £146
Holiday: £840, averaging £70 a month
Childcare: £0

Read more: “I split the bills with my boyfriend and I’ve got that in writing!”

Single parenting

Parenting alone can be an enormous financial challenge. According to the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), it costs an average of £220,000 for a lone parent to raise a child to the age of 18. This comes to about £1,019 a month, on top of the costs outlined above.

Childcare can be monumentally expensive. While schooling itself is free when children reach the age of four, a full-time nursery place for a child aged under two has climbed as high as £14,836, according to children’s charity Coram.

Single parents are more likely to have to pay for childcare services and the lack of a second income to cover the additional cost of raising children makes it incredibly difficult for single parents on average salaries to get by.

Fortunately, there is help available for parents to ease the financial burden of raising a child:

• Child benefit – although it’s worth bearing in mind that once you earn £50,000 or more, the amount you receive starts to fall. Find out more about the child benefit charge
• Tax-free childcare, or even free childcare for three- and four-year-olds. Find out more
• If you’re on a low income, you may be able to claim universal credit. Learn more

Total monthly cost: £2,710.42

Rent: £1,260
Bills: £249
Holiday: £2,189, half of the cost of taking a family of four on holiday according to Nimblefins, averaging £182.42 a month
Childcare: £1,019

Living as a couple with children

Parenting, as with housing, becomes significantly more manageable with an extra income (and extra pair of hands). Even if there’s only one income stream, you’re likely to save significantly on childcare costs as one of you will be able to dedicate time to looking after your child instead of having to fork out for somebody else to do so.

Nonetheless, the choice to have children remains an incredibly expensive one. Couples raising a child to 18 are expected to spend £166,000, according to CPAG, considerably less than the £220,000 a single parent would spend. We take a deep dive into the cost of raising a child.

Your food shop will be more expensive if you’re feeding three or four rather than one or two. You’ll spend more money on petrol or transport as you ferry your little ones around, whether it’s school or a playdate.

From additional bills to housing space to childcare, an extra income makes parenting significantly more manageable. However, if both of you are choosing to work, it’s worth ensuring that the extra income you’ll bring in will cover the necessary childcare costs that arise with two working parents.

If one of you earns more than £50,000, you’ll end up sacrificing some of the child benefit you receive. But if you have two incomes, and they’re both under this threshold, the rules work in your favour. If you each earn £48,000, for example, there will be no child benefit charge. But if you had one income of £60,000, you’d receive no child benefit at all, even though the overall household income would be much lower.

Find out more about the child benefit charge.

Holidays will be more expensive than before you had children – with extra rooms, tickets for flights or train journeys and because you will generally be limited to school holidays, when accommodation and flight costs tend to spike due to larger-than-usual demand.

See our tips for travelling on a budget and booking cheap flights.

Total monthly cost per person: £1,425.32

Mortgage: £633 (assuming the current average two-year fixed mortgage rate of 5.68%, and the average UK house price of £257,656 as per Nationwide)
Bills: £146
Holiday: £3,284, three quarters of the cost of taking a family of four on holiday according to Nimblefins, averaging £273.63 a month, or £136.82 each
Childcare: £509.50

So, are you financially better off single?

The most cost-effective option is living with a partner where both of you have an income.

You can split housing costs, bills and holidays, even if there’s a discrepancy in your incomes.

If you’re single, living with flatmates is likely to save you a decent amount.

Singletons do save on food and some other bills, and there is the 25% council tax discount available to people living on their own. So they are slightly better off than being part of a couple with only one income. 

But that changes as soon as children become involved, with the extra childcare costs quickly outweighing any savings on bills.

The reality is, however, that life is more complicated than simply how much money you’ll save by going down certain routes, so whether you’re single, in a couple, a parent or not – remember that finances are only ever part of the equation and quality of life matters too.

Read more: Eight money tips for healthy relationships