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We are also sharing a one bedroom apartment to save money. But I want a bigger place! At least I know that I am not alone.
I think no matter what, two incomes is better than one.
I had to quit my job to move to be with my hubby, and I still haven't started making the same money that I used to yet, but he makes way more and that's two incomes so we are just fine. That's nice.
Two shitty incomes makes one great one! Yay! But right now we are shitty and great. So together that makes fabulous.
We are going from living at home to owning a house and having all of the bills and expenses that with being homeowners. I know we will make it work but it will be a big adjustment. I know at first we will be cutting back on a lot of our spending.
We only have one good income which is enough to live off of. I imagine we won't have two solid incomes for quite awhile, with me taking out student loans (and determined to pay them off within 2 years) and then having kids. The goal is to always live off one, then use the other for savings, vacation, college funds, etc.
I actually don't know what my standard of living would be without my husband. We combined finances pretty young, when neither of us had any money. :) What has definitely affected our standard of living was graduating college! Even though we both worked full-time during college, tuition payments were a lot to handle. I'm glad to be done with that!
Our standard of living is actually much less. My husband makes more than I did but we are saving a large amount of his paycheck and trying to rebuilding our savings and save up for a new home. Makes for a lot less fun money!
Our standard of living has definitely improved - we effectively doubled our income and we now share all of our expenses. I am the keeper of the budget and have managed to wipe out 90% of our credit card debt (although it's creeping back up since FI switched jobs) and get all the bills paid on time which has helped a lot.
Our standard of living is pretty much the same, but it could be better - since paying for the wedding, buying a house, and taking some vacations we are back in saving mode for preparing to have a baby. We have enough to live on with his salary, and mine goes entirely into savings. So although we have money, we are just as careful with it as we've always been because we have plans for it.
We hit marriage penalty-land, so while our standard of living hasn't changed much, we also haven't realized any tax benefits or financial benefits from combining incomes.
Our taxes were worst than I thought they'd be, but we also have just lived in his house and rented mine out...plus he makes more and keeps getting raises ((jealous))
really, though, most of the extra $ we spend remodeling and saving for baby, so I don't feel rich!
@cannotwait - my husband is the same, he's gotten 4 raises and he's only beeen at his job since Nov of last year!! what can I say, my man is good at what he does 
We just got our contract accepted on a house, so now we will be house poor until I can find a better paying job. Then, the extra income will go to paying the rest of our credit cards to get ready for my student loan repay in Dec. Anything extra will go into savings, and our $8000 tax credit will go toward a driveway and garage for the hubs
My circumstances are the same or worse off. We moved into his condo and sold mine. His has a much higher mortgage payment than mine did and is not much bigger. He is underwater in the mortgage so it feels like money going down the toilet, we as I had owned mine for ten years and was really paying down the mortgage. His brother had also paid a portion of the mortgage before the wedding since he is the joint owner. We got no tax benefit and almost took a huge hit from Maryland the state I left but filing married separetly versus married joint seemed to fix that and we both got back roughly the same amount as we had as singles. The way our employers pay for insurance, meant we would get no benefit combining insurance. I also spent money for movers and other moving expenses. Maybe it will get beter next year.
I put lower because while he makes a little more than I do, we will be living in a VERY high standard of living area. I just moved this weekend and will start a new job soon... but our income will not make the difference coming from a lower standard of living area that I moved from.
Le sigh. We are only 23... we will hopefully build up some monies in the next 2 years or so!
The only difference for us right now is that we each only pay 1/2 the rent we were paying prior to moving in together, otherwise we make almost the same salary so it kind of works out the same. We are trying really hard to save, but now with the wedding getting close and having so many things to pay for: rings, honeymoon, gifts, train tickets, etc. pretty much nothing is going towards savings.
Well, I didn't have any money for a year before we got married (I was working full time in a neighborhood ministry which doesn't pay, so I was living off of my savings) so having an income at all was a step up :-). But living off of one small income is pretty tight, and now that we're moving, I have a job and he doesn't so it'll be about the same. But we want to learn to live off of one income anyway so I can stay at home when we have kids, so it works for us :-)
I said slightly higher. I make more than FI but he still makes a really good salary and now we have combined expenses. Although our expenses are a little higher now because we bought a house vs. renting like before. I definitely couldn't have afforded to buy a house on my own though so that right there is a vast improvement.
Mine increased drastically immediately, because I was going from a grad student working as a TA and research assistant to living on 50% of his salary as a software developer for one of the largest companies in the world. However, if I were to compare that to the salary I was making before grad school, it wasn't that large a change. But, quickly thereafter, we bought a house, which increased our expenses substantially, as we got a really nice house to spend 5-7 years in and as a result our mortgage payments are a lot more than we were paying on rent before. Now that I'm about to start working again, I'll happily be enjoying a much higher standard of living than I ever have before. So something of a yo-yo, but this is something I have reflected on; how much more money there is in my life due to his partnership with me, but how much less money there is in his life. I've never asked, but I wonder if that crossed his mind as a negative when we got engaged and bought a house together. I'm guessing not - men have the advantage in this situation of that whole provide-for-your-family stereotype. (Not that that's a good thing in all circumstances.)
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For the married bees or those who have combined finances already, has your standard of living changed now versus when you were single? For example, my husband makes a lot more money than I do, so our combined income divided by two works out to a lot more than my singleton income ever was. It has been a pleasant after-effect of the wedding--though it will change someday when we have kids and I stay home for awhile. In the meantime, though, it is nice being able to save lots for a house while still going out and having fun. Sharing a 1-bedroom apartment helps make the money go farther too.
How will your financial situation change when you have combined finances? What impact has it had (or will it have) on the way you live and your plans for the future? Has it closed or opened any doors for you?