The paper presents a comparison of the costs of Polish households by their main source of income. In order to compare these costs the author estimated three kinds of equivalence scales using the Engel method, ELES (Extended Linear Expenditure System), the demand equation and the Bernoulli well-being function. Estimation for household groups determined on account of the main source of income produced by the scales confirmed differences in households' maintenance costs compared to the costs of the reference household. A comparison of the values of equivalence scales revealed a similarity of the results produced by the ELES and the Bernoulli methods which differed from the results obtained by means of the Engel method.