February is the season of love. This is that time of year when heart-shaped nail art begins trending on social media, Is It Cake? releases its Valentine’s special episode, and brands try their hardest to get you to buy their Valentine’s-inspired products.
I kid you not, I have seen LED hair growth devices and food vacuum sealers labelled as Valentine’s Deals, because clearly no gifts are more romantic than ones that say ‘You’re going bald. Oh, and the fridge stinks.’
Of course, that’s provided you’re even celebrating Valentine’s Day. A recent viral British Vogue article declared that romance is now ‘embarrassing.’
‘Being partnered […] is no longer considered an achievement and, if anything, it’s become more of a flex to pronounce yourself single,’ claims its author, Chanté Joseph.
However, one major perk of having a partner, which Joseph fails to mention, is financial resilience. Those of us who are not in a relationship are subject to the ‘singles tax,’ making it more expensive to live without a significant other, despite the single status being in vogue.
Single Ladies (Put a Tax on It)
Sure, people living alone are entitled to a 25 per cent discount on council tax, but in all other regards, being single means having to spend more on just about everything. Singles tax can affect anyone in the UK, regardless of their age or gender, but has particularly adverse effects on the finances of single parents. In a 2024 interview with The Guardian, a 40-year-old woman from South Wales calculated that having a partner would save her £750 a month.
‘On average, singles spend £8,100 a year on housing, bills, and groceries, slightly more than the £7,800 per person for couples,’ says Sarah Coles, Head of Personal Finance at Hargreaves Lansdown. ‘However, as a percentage of their income, singles are spending 36 per cent on essentials compared to 29 per cent for couples.’
It isn’t just landlords and the taxman who are raking it in at the expense of single people. Companies, including gyms, also seem keen to reward couples purely for existing.
For example, love birds who sign up to Total Fitness together can save ten per cent on two individual memberships. David Lloyd offers a similar deal. Despite the fact that their regular membership costs £94.50 a month, they only charge £77 for a couple’s membership. When individual gym memberships are no longer accessible to the masses, single people will struggle to have as healthy a lifestyle as those who are in a relationship, through no fault of their own. Our relationship-obsessed society knocks them down before they can even place one foot on the treadmill.
If that wasn’t enough, the benefits of having a partner don’t stop at fitness. Spotify Premium Duo saves couples £8 a month, while having a Two Together railcard reduces annual rail fares by a third. Furthermore, Amazon Family costs the same as an individual fee, but allows two adults equal access to Prime and a 20 per cent discount on baby items. Notice how a single parent, who would arguably need the funds more, is not eligible for this perk. At every turn, single people are at a considerable disadvantage. And that’s before you consider the greatest essential of all: Food.
Not-So-Glorious Food
Imagine a single person browsing at their nearest Tesco store, looking for something nutritious to eat. They spot a regular pack of strawberries, weighing 227g, with a £2.30 price tag. However, the 600g crate next to it is only a pound more, but there’s only so much fruit a single person can eat before it spoils. The reality is that single households frequently pay roughly twice as much for their fruit compared to couples and families. Let’s do another quick comparison. Say that same person waltzes into Waitrose and decides to treat themselves to a swanky Charlie Bigham’s ready meal. They have to pay £6.50 for 325g of meatballs, while the meal for two version weighs 650g and costs £9.95. As a couple, you can get double the amount of food (as is right, since there are two of you) while only spending £4.48 each on the same meal and portion size that costs a single person £6.50. That’s two pounds less than what the single person has to pay.
To add insult to injury, couples don’t even have to pay a premium for their Valentine’s caviar McNuggets. Honestly, the indignity of it! Single people must either cough up the money for individual portions and accept that they are being ripped off, or buy family-sized portions and risk throwing a great deal away. To many, the latter option may seem preferable, even if it contributes to the 10 million tonnes of annual food waste in the UK. Amidst rising food inflation, though, who can blame single people for choosing the better deal?
We know why food gets cheaper the more generous the portion size. The cost of going from making no meatballs to producing one is exponentially higher than the cost of producing seven meatballs instead of six. Additionally, economies of scale mean that the larger the portion size, the more the supermarket is able to drive the price down. But even with all this in mind, it hardly seems fair that singles are forced to pay more for the same quality and amount of food as everyone else.
The Singles Spiral
The consequences of a singles tax are not to be underestimated. If single people generally spend more on household bills and essentials, they will generally have less money to save. Owning your own property soon becomes a pipe dream, and renting may cease to be sustainable, which is likely why ‘hotel mum and dad’ is booked indefinitely.
Single parents have it even worse. Many find themselves with spiralling debts and a low credit score that will take its toll on the next generation, as children who grow up in households with less financial resilience and poor financial literacy are more likely to end up in the same situation themselves further down the line.
How many of us stay in relationships just to get by? And why should we have to choose between being financially stable and having the freedom to remain single? Ultimately, singles tax is unequivocally regressive for penalising those who either have no choice over their lifestyle or choose to live independently. That’s nothing to be raising a glass of Valentine’s Dr Pepper to.
Prices sourced between February 4th-6th, 2026, on recommended retail sites.
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