h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just found this from last year -

https://www.virginmoney.com/newscentre/press_releases/pr_15_05_03.html

Basically on average the british male spends £186 on a first date (€275, $353, A$443)

Some obvious questions - blokes - do you really spend that much - £15 for beauty treatment before a date! Do you think it is required to get any success?

And woman (It does give the impression that it is just hetro-sexual dates they are talking about) do you really expect this - would you think less of a bloke turning up in a shirt bought from Asda at £3?

And from around the world - does this match with other countries dating habits?

CHawke

Blimey. I can't see the average Aussie bloke spending $443 on a date - first, second or hundredth! A night at the pub with his mates, sure, but not on a *date*.

Or maybe I just hang about with a lot of drunken cheapskates. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Ivan.

Hmmm. I have been known to wear an expensive shirt out on a first date, but chances are I've worn it on more than one first date. So it might have cost me £50 but I'll have worn it several times...

I reckon I could easily do this if I really wanted to impress a girl with my taste and generosity, and if I lived in London where a decent bottle of wine will cost £25.00...

Well I'm probably out of touch with dating practices (being happily married for over 12 years) but it does seem a lot of money to fork out on a date, let alone the first one. But there again I'm probably a skinflint

The title is deceptive. That's not how much a man is spending on the date; most of it is what he's spending on himself to impress the girl.

Would I expect a man to buy a new outfit for our first date? No. Richard certainly didn't and I married him!

Would I buy a new outfit for a first date? No. In fact, if women are spending more than £100 a month on new clothes, etc., I'd love to meet the woman who's spending my share of that. Even when I had money to spare I didn't spend that much.

I can only speak for myself, but I get the feeling that men are going a bit too far with this. Like most women I like men to be 'nicely turned out' (i.e., clean, tidy, presentable, reasonably well-groomed). But I don't expect them to spend hours at the gym / sunbeds / beauty parlour. In fact, I would regard a man who did all that as probably being narcissistic, and I'd wonder if he really was doing it to impress women or to just to please himself.

Actually CD, I think I'd blow the vast majority of that on a good restaurant and a couple of bottles of decent wine.

But then I like my food, and usually find that women do too...

Which is good - you would be spending the money on something you can both actually see the value of - money spent on such items as beauty, hair cuts and clothes would, IMHO, be wasted if you then don't do what you both enjoy on a date - in your case good food and lots of good wine -

I'd like to think that the quality of the actual date was more important than appearance (a certain standard having been reached of course, and appearance approriate for the actual venue)

CHawke

Yeah, but it'll cost most of that £186.10 to reach that base standard thesedays given the ridiculous cost of (a) the most basic of self grooming products and (b) achieving the base standard expected by the type of woman who just, for some inexplicable reason, can't find the partner that's absolutely quite perfect enough for her to tolerate being on a date with for more than 5 minutes before running for the hills

daS - not earning enough to be able to afford much of (a) and suffering lots of (b) here in the Midlands (having dated women, not many I admit but coming from a broad spectrum, who've hailed from from Northumberland to Catalunya, it does just seem to be Midlands Gals!)

"Yeah, but it'll cost most of that £186.10 to reach that base standard these days given the ridiculous cost of (a) the most basic of self grooming products".

You mean like soap, shampoo, toothpaste and shaving cream / shaver (assuming the man is clean-shaven). Again I'm only speaking for myself, but as long as a man is clean (i.e., doesn't smell) I don't care what 'grooming products' he uses. They don't *have* to be expensive, although some products like Lynx and Insignia (is that still around) smell cheap, if you know what I mean.

A trim at our local barber costs less than £10, ordinary soap is less than 50p for a bar, deodorant around £1 depending on your choice of brand... You get the picture. A man can get himself 'presentable' for less than £15, which leaves £170 to spend on the date. Even if he bought an expensive fragrance it needn't take him much below £140 - £150. Richard could take me to see a film, followed by a meal at our favourite Chinese restaurant and still have well over £100. Admittedly we don't drink wine, but even if we did there would still be around £100 left.

Can I date you then coz it certainly wouldn't be enough around here!

£18.61 sounds a bit more like my average expenditure...

B

Right, that's it, I'm moving!

Sounds like a resanable amount, for a meal, some wine, a couple of taxis, and perhaps a few drinks in a bar... Don't think I'd be able to get any new clothes out of it though But I wouldn't consider buying clothes as a necesity before a date really, I'd prefer to have nice clothes whatever I'm doing though I rarely have Actually... thinking about it, the last time I went to 'The Venu', with a mate, we knocked up two hundred quid on the meal and wine, and that was just with a friend- my lodger

Well, I want to know what the 10p goes on...

To call the taxi, obviously

I'd assumed that it was the small change that invariably slips down the back of her sofa while you're snogging on it.

B

At that kind of a price I would be hoping for a bit more than a snog on the sofa!

Even more opportunities to lose your loose change then...

B

So are you admitting to thinking that a date "buys" you some sort of reward - surely not.

CHawke

Actually, my miserable experience would tend to back that up.

I find the quickest way of getting a girl into bed is by the copious application of alcohol...

B