Can two people live on one person's wage?

AnnoyedEnergyUser

Presumably it all depends on lifestyle, location and current commitments. 

No mortgage is a must but would still be dooable.

We manage fine on 18k we save and have everything we need.

seven-day-weekend

My son and his partner live on the equivalent of one wage. They earn, between them, about £22k a year.

They have a small mortgage (deposit was gifted).

They don't smoke and rarely drink.

They have takeaways a couple of times a week.

They manage to save.

They don't have a car, neither of them drive.  My son cycles to work, his partner walks.

They don't go on holiday.

They have no children, but if they did they would get money from the Government so their income would increase.  At the moment they receive no Benefits.

They manage very well.

Pollycat

It's really a "how long is a piece of string?" question.
It depends on your lifestyle/whether you drink and/or smoke/how you shop - for food and clothes/whether your mortgage is small or big or how much your rent is/whether you run a car/whether you have debts....and on and on.

zagfles

seven-day-weekend said:

My son and his partner live on the equivalent of one wage. They earn, between them, about £22k a year.

They have a small mortgage (deposit was gifted).

They don't smoke and rarely drink.

They have takeaways a couple of times a week.

They manage to save.

They don't have a car, neither of them drive.  My son cycles to work, his partner walks.

They don't go on holiday.

They have no children, but if they did they would get money from the Government so their income would increase.  At the moment they receive no Benefits.

They manage very well.

It's a lot easier if income is earned by both as they'll get 2 tax/NI allowances, if they earn £11k each they'd pay no tax and only about £360 NI between them, whereas if one of them earned £22k and the other nothing they'd pay about £3386 in tax and NI, so about £3000 more.

[Deleted User]

Having no Mortgage is the biggest benefit! 

seven-day-weekend

zagfles said:

seven-day-weekend said:

My son and his partner live on the equivalent of one wage. They earn, between them, about £22k a year.

They have a small mortgage (deposit was gifted).

They don't smoke and rarely drink.

They have takeaways a couple of times a week.

They manage to save.

They don't have a car, neither of them drive.  My son cycles to work, his partner walks.

They don't go on holiday.

They have no children, but if they did they would get money from the Government so their income would increase.  At the moment they receive no Benefits.

They manage very well.

It's a lot easier if income is earned by both as they'll get 2 tax/NI allowances, if they earn £11k each they'd pay no tax and only about £360 NI between them, whereas if one of them earned £22k and the other nothing they'd pay about £3386 in tax and NI, so about £3000 more.

Yes, I accept that.  But £22k a year is still not very much.

kimwp

My current spend for this year looks to be just under £10,000 (single person, no mortgage, two pets) not including expensive dental work and the cost of pet issues. I have spent very little on clothes and shoes, but quite a lot on takeaways (regretfully!)- cutting those out would free a significant chunk of money. Unless it's a bigger ticket item (currently pondering a dishwasher), then I spend as I want without considering about the cost (recently out for coffee with a friend, spotted an apple tree I wanted, added everything recommended to the trolley and handed over my credit card with no idea of the number until it appeared on the machine). So I think without a mortgage 20k for two would be comfortable but not leave much room for large unexpected expense or require being a bit careful in order to save for those expenses.

sheramber

My son is the sole earner. has a wife and two children. 

Has a large house with a mortgage, a caravan,( company car) holidays abroad with family or on golf trips. 

They live very comfortably on his one wage.

waltonator

It depends where in the country you are and how long you have to live on one salary. After off takes I take home £1800 and three adults live on my salary and one son now at university. We live in a village poor bus service I work as a teacher and travel 22 miles to work so a car is essential.... last week £56 for petrol to get to work. Had to remortgage at the end of our 25 years as the insurance didn't pay off the mortgage. Long term living like this is not sustainable and debit increases.
Currently 
mortgage £650
petrol £200
Energy bill £110
council tax £210
Food £ 300
insurances)car and house) £ 40
Mobiles £22 broad band/tv =£75
=£1600(approx)
Having lived on 1 salary for 10 years, over the years car repairs and house hold repairs go on credit cards which is a lot of debit so each month we are in the red.
No holidays, no eating out ,no take-aways.
 Without additional salaries this is existence not living.
 

strawb_shortcake

I've bought my family up on one wage for nearly 20 years. We chose when I was pregnant with the eldest that we wanted to have a stay at home parent, we did that for around 17 years when my partner went into full time further education, so still technically one wage but two commitments. 

It's been really hard at times, but in the main we cut our cloth, I'm lucky that I have a public sector pension if not I don't think I'd have pension to eventually look forward too. 
It's only been the last few years we've really been able to put money away. 

I don't for one minute regret the choice we made, having  so many memories and huge amounts of time with the children has been priceless. The memories that cost more meant a lot as we saved hard to achieve them.

The key thing for making it work was that we were both on the same page, we weren't materialistic so never felt we were going without when we only had money for essentials.

If and when we return to two wages that second wage is pretty much all disposable income which is quite a nice thought