Attention all singles! On top of being a victim of rubbish pop culture representation, low-level social stigma and the high potential for Tinder catfishing, you’re also spending around £6,000 more than your friends in relationships will do in one year. Hallelujah!
According to discount website Voucher Codes Pro, the average single person will spend £5,772 more in a year than their coupled-up equivalent.
A survey of 2,125 Brits aged between 18 and 30 (half of whom were single; half of whom had been in a relationship for at least two years) revealed that single people blow £150 of disposable income every week. In comparison, those in a relationship spent a meagre £39. So that’s why your Instagram feed is flooded with grinning, coupled-up friends-of-friends doing #adorable poses with ‘the boy’ on balconies in Santorini. As The Lion King once taught us, life really isn’t fair.
How are singletons frittering away the best part of six grand, you ask? Are they spending their salaries on their growing menagerie of cats? Attending expensive, singles-only screenings of Magic Mike? Building themselves affordable solo housing made from first edition Bridget Jones novels? Not exactly, but the Sex and the City - style ‘single life’ clichés are definitely out in force in the survey’s findings (the best clichés are clichés because they’re true, after all...)
Nights out, takeaways and restaurant food were cited as the top three expenses, and predictably alcohol accounts for a fair portion of a single person’s spending, amounting to £45 a week (those in relationships had an average spend of £17). Pass. The. Wine.
Rubbish news, then, for those of us who are yet to find the David to our Victoria – but do couples really have it so easy financially? Asking whether singletons spend more elicits some predictably tongue-in-cheek responses. ‘It depends how good your boyfriend is and whether he pays for everything,’ says one friend; ‘I have to go out and get drunk to disguise the fact I’m hopelessly single and can’t just Netflix and chill with bae,’ another.
The survey also tries to account for the reasons behind this disparity in spending: 62% linked it to ‘going out more,’ 24% said that there’s less pressure for those in a relationship to look attractive, and 14% thought it was down to splitting bills.
A quick – and totally unscientific – Facebook shout out confirms that being in a relationship means fewer nights out - spoil sports - and less of your pay check disappearing to alcohol. ‘I definitely haven’t saved £6,000 a year since being in a relationship – I don’t have £6,000! – but I do think I have saved some money’ says one writer. ‘I hate to admit it but I probably do go out less now, which means less money spent on £8 gin and tonics and £20 Ubers. Splitting cabs home is one big money saving benefit of being in a relationship!’
On a slightly grander scale, all those we interviewed agreed that living as a couple slices your living costs. ‘If you’re a couple you get to share costs like rent, bills, presents. If you’re single, you fork all of that out yourself, then there’s the added cost of going on dates and going out more,’ says one friend.
On the flip side, though, there's the price of meals out, day trips and holidays with your partner. 'I definitely spent way less when I was single! I go out for dinner and day trips way more now than before,' says one interviewee. Another agrees - but feels the real spending comes in the rose-tinted early days. 'I spend more at the beginning of relationships, getting drunk together and doing fun stuff together. Then less, because people are all like "Let's just chill in this weekend and watch movies" and "why eat at restaurants when we can cook pasta together!"'
On the flipside, it's worth taking into account the 'screw it' philosophy that us singles can end up succumbing to. Think a L'Oreal-esque 'I'm worth it,' multiplied by every single person's arch-enemy, FOMO. 'Do I spend more now I'm single? Yes, yes and yes again,' says one friend. 'I just booked myself a yoga retreat, then there's expensive highlights, new clothes...'
As for the conventional wisdom that singles need to spend more on A-grade beautification to entice a mate, while couples can ‘try less,’ our jury’s out. ‘In terms of clothes and beauty, I can’t see why I would ever save money in a relationship – the shopping addiction is still very real,’ argues one interviewee, and we’re inclined to agree – even The One couldn’t stop us in our pursuit of perfect hair…
READ MORE: 26 Things You'll Know If You're The Only Single Girl In Your Squad