Inflation has changed modern dating for Gen Zers and Millennials. Cheap dates are not only more common, but, in fact, an appealing quality, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Half of single Gen Zers and Millennials are now seeking out less expensive places for dates, according to a survey of 8,000 people by dating app Plenty of Fish.
When it comes to a second date, Tyler Sandoval is particularly careful about where he invites a romantic interest. “You don’t want to make a huge investment in someone you don’t know,” says the 32-year-old email marketing consultant.
“It used to be taboo to talk about money,” agrees Los Angeles dating coach Julie Spira. “Now, you need to have those conversations.” This may be especially true with the average date costing $98, according to Zoosk, a dating app.
Karstan Neumeister, a 27-year-old environmental editor in New Orleans, asks people on dates less often these days. When he does ask someone out, it’s to a place that doesn’t cost too much, and he asks them to split the bill if there is a second date.
“You feel a little more discouraged when a date doesn’t go well and it’s also expensive,” Neumeister reasons. “It adds a little more salt to the wound.”
If a date is not willing to be creative about where to meet and to split a bill, he believes that’s a sign to move on to the next prospect.
Natiana Malin Gazek, a 35-year-old who runs a diversity, equity and inclusion consulting firm in New York, suggests a “green” approach for her first encounters with gentlemen callers: a walk around Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
“If it’s not a match, neither of us need to feel resentful that we invested our time or our money and can instead feel glad that we got to talk a walk in nature,” she says.
But some would-be suitors are taking economic concerns to a degree that could rub a potential love interest the wrong way.
Rachel Horowitz got a text from a date after he had waved away her credit card the night before: “Hey bb what’s your Venmo I need that dollar bad,” with an end cap of a worried emoji.
Horowitz thought to herself, “I guess if you really need that dollar that bad, I’ll give it to you,” before Venmoing him $40.
There was no second date.
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