Valentine’s Day could be an opportunity for gifts that your wallets could happen, but it is thousands of books cheaper than being alone.
Being single costs £ 2,533 more per year, Sky News can reveal. Suddenly, this box of chocolates does not seem so expensive.
Singles are obliged to spend 22% more for rent or mortgages, council tax and energy, 28% more in food and 32% more high speed and phones.
It is according to the analysis of Hargreaves Lansdown shared exclusively with Sky News, which revealed that the singons remained only £ 42 at the end of the month – £ 341 less than the couples.
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“They simply do not have this additional money, so they make these enormous compromises in each part of their lives,” said Sarah Coles, responsible for personal finances in the main investment business.
“And the people who are in couples are rocked in a false feeling of security and do not think that they must care about it.”
But whether by divorce or mourning, everyone becomes single again if they live quite a long time, she said.
One tax?
“He did not even enter my brain,” said Robert Macdonald, 56, of Swansea, whose relationship ended eight months ago.
“Living definitively only one life is much more expensive and people who have not done so do not understand it.”
The waste collector said that the essential elements of everyday has become more expensive now it is unable to divide large -band and telephony invoices.
Communication devices cost an average of £ 828 per year, while each £ 628 couple partner has shown the data.
“The rental market is ridiculous,” added Robert, who has become one of 8.4 million people in England and Wales living alone.
Robert said it was “scary” how fast the rent increased
He spends 41% of his monthly salary of £ 1,700 on a bed to a bed, 11 percentage points more than what is considered affordable.
The average rent for a bed was £ 726 in 2015 – it is now £ 1,095, according to the real estate agent Hamptons.
And there is no one to help assume the burden of heating it either.
“Scary” is the way in which Hazel, 71, of London, described the price of warming since the death of her husband.
“The costs of gas in this country are shameful,” said Hazel, who has chosen not to publish his last name.
“For the most part, I dress in 25 layers and I do not put my heating.”
Essential housing costs – rent or mortgage, council tax and fuel – returns singles of £ 7,974 per year on average, while couples spend £ 6,215 each, according to Hargreaves Lansdown.
This bill of £ 1,759 Eclips the tax delivery of the council of 25% available for people living alone.
Food invoices “ exorbitant ”
Food does not offer any respite to the singons, which cannot necessarily take advantage of the loose discounts or browse family packs before the expiration of the products.
Steph, 30, from London, who chose not to publish his last name, said that his weekly shop cost him £ 20 in 2015 – now it is an £ “exorbitant”, despite the removal of meat And fish to save money.
“In the past two years, being single is so much more difficult than before,” she said.
“I feel like I was a little forgotten.”
Food cost singles £ 574 more per year than each person in a couple.
Steph pays £ 1,300 in rent for a property almost identical to that which cost him £ 500 in 2015 in 2015
Holidays are not a break
The single tax does not stop at the border.
Since the death of her husband Hugh, Hazel has continued to make the cruises they once shared together to escape loneliness at home.
But it is often forced to pay single occupation costs, a supplement that doubles the cost of a part, invoicing the same amount as if Hugh was there.
“It’s evil,” said the former travel agent.
“Literally, what I pay is what people next to it pay for two of them. It’s horrible – and it’s the same for each hotel. “”
Death, love and economies
With higher expenses and income, singles find it more difficult to save for a house deposit – for which they have to get rid of.
Landers also generally consider a mortgage between four and five times the annual salary of a household, putting many properties out of reach for singles.
This may mean that they do not pay from rent to retirement when couples have reimbursed their mortgage.
“This is a very difficult situation for singles,” said Sarah de Hargreaves Lansdown.
“You will have to build a massive pension or you will have to buy.”
According to Hamptons, only 20% of people with a mortgage live alone, and the construction of a “massive pension” is simply not an option for people like Lisa Mcquad, 44, of Colchester.
Reading his 15 year old son on an income – £ 1,300 per month plus £ 1,000 in universal credit – left the single mother who unable to save.
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“There is no chance that I am going on the property scale unless I find a boyfriend or my parents die,” said Lisa, who pays £ 950 per month of rent for the two beds Cheaper than she could find.
“I don’t see life improving as much financially, you feel like you have to be in a relationship.”
The average deposit in the United Kingdom is £ 24,543, according to Hamptons, who would take a single person to increase if he would put aside £ 185 per month.
Retirement
“Throughout retirement, the number of other people living on their own increase,” said Simon Sarkar, head of pension research and Lifetime Savings Association.
“This is something that is widespread, that people face these changes in the circumstances we should all think of.”
The association estimates that it costs in simple £ 31,300 per year to enjoy a retired standard of living, against £ 21,550 per person in a couple.
However, less than a third (31%) of singles are on the right track with their retirement savings, against almost half of the couples (44%), according to Hargreaves Lansdown.
The costs of physical and health needs are often overlooked, said Simon.
Singles may have to buy services that a partner would otherwise help to provide, gardening and DIY for personal care.
“Because it’s not opposite, you might think that you get out of it, but the lack of long -term resilience is a big problem,” said Ms. Coles.
Emergency fund
The financial resilience of singles is tested throughout their lives, 46% of them failed to save enough to cover three months of essential spending, against 16% of couples.
It is more difficult to absorb the financial blows distributed by the undesirable surprises of life.
When Lisa answered the phone for the first time to Sky News, she had just parked a car that broke down the previous week, which costs her £ 250.
When Robert resumed, he asked if the gas man was at the other end of the line, who was to repair his boiler for £ 170.
“Once again, you go there, if two people were here, it would be cheaper,” he said.