I have a cousin that is a bit older than me and is married to a bloke who works part-time. He used to be on full time then went to a zero hour and is lucky they moved him on to part time of 3 days per week.
She works as a teacher, he is a tyre-fitter for those usual scam-merchant type tyre places in UK. She is 44 this year, he is 43 and have 3 kids aged 18, 12 and 4.
Long long ago her mother told her she should marry a better guy, I secretly think the sole reason she married him is because she wanted a White guy to stay on in UK. These days I tell her she only has herself to blame as they can barely make ends meet and that she should have listened to her mother's wise advice.
Earnings :-
She : £34,000
He : £8,500
After tax :-
She : £26,000
He : £8,500
Joint monthly household income : £2875 (she holds all the money)
Mortgage : 3 bedroom house in your very standard normal neighbourhood that his parents sold to him with a "parental" discount at £160,000 requires a repayment of £750 per month. There is also a £120 per month extra loan for repairs and improvements the house needed. They bought it 7 years ago and it is their first and only house.
Cars : There are 2, 1 is an 8 year old Fiat Panda that I sold to them for £1,500 11 months ago. Supposed to pay me £100 per month for it but haven't had a payment for 4 months now. They also have a 4 year old Ford S-Max, nothing special just a basic one bought for £16,000, payment for it is £250 per month. He drives the Fiat 40 miles away for his work while she takes the Ford 15 miles away, absolutely cheapest way to do it as it cost more to take public transport. Insurance is £70 per month. Fuel cost £450 for both of them.
Childcare : £180 for 2.5 days per week.
Food stuff and sundries : £90-120 per week (averaged at £450 per month) and they don't eat out at all even lunch is packed from home.
Utilities and communication : £120 for electric and gas. £40 for telephones and internet.
Council tax : £95 per month.
The balance? That has to cover the occasional clothes (mostly from Primark), maintenance of the cars etc and once per week she gives her husband £5 that he could use either after work or at the pub.
She recently asked me if I could loan them £1,000 as their eldest daughter at uni needed some money for a deposit, their refrigerator broke down and that Ford needs tyres to pass the MOT.
I looked at their bank account and expenses there really isn't much room to scale back on anything other than to sell the house but that in itself pose a different set of problems, would be a false economy to sell the cars and get anything cheaper.
If I was her husband I'd be ashamed that I was bringing so little to the table. No idea what dignity he still has in himself to be in such a situation. I'd be humiliated if my kids did what my 12 year old nephew did a few weeks ago and said something along the lines of "Daddy why can't you have a job like Uncle Jonas." and I'd be disgusted if my kids said something along the lines of my their eldest who told my eldest "I so wish I had a dad like your dad, absolutely sucks can't get anything nice while at uni." I don't even spoil my kids, just provide them with the basics.
While I'm sure there would be ways and means to make this 1.5 income households work one of the income will need to be fairly higher than average to make up for the shortfall otherwise your standard of living will most likely take a big hit.