Another Great Thing about Philadelphia:
It's A Cheap Date.
When eighty-year old Doris Drum began dating young
men in the neighborhood, in 1932, a movie cost about
25 cents -- and that included a candy bar and a
comic book. Grandma Drum reminisces: "My brother,
Leck, was given a $1.00 bill from our dad to take
a girl out on a date. Oh my... how times have changed."
-- Dateable.com survey respondent
"I
usually spend about $125.00 on a date. Can't really
get around it. I guess you could save money with
a picnic, but nobody does that stuff anymore."
-- 30-year old from Los Angeles
What
do you want to do? I don't know, what do you want
to do? Well, let's get a bite to eat and hit a movie.
Not so fast ... If you're in Los Angeles, you better
have at least $90.00; in New York, make it $110.00.
Philadelphia-based Dateable.com, one of the longest
running Internet romance communities, just completed
the initial phase of their cost of dating index
designed to give a rough estimate of the cost of
dating in American cities -- beginning with Philadelphia,
New York and Los Angeles. Of the three, Philadelphia
turned out to be the most reasonably priced city.
"We've got more than great hockey, history
and hoagies.
"Here's
yet another great thing about Philadelphia,"
said Jennifer Klein, President and Founder of Dateable.com.
"Cities like New York and San Francisco serve
obnoxiously high restaurant bills. Sporting events
in cities like Los Angeles can bring the cost of
a date up to $300.00 or so (with cheap tickets).
I wanted to see how Philadelphia compared to LA
and New York."
Initial
Survey Results
Here's a snapshot of initial survey results. The
initial survey looked at 6 key areas: flowers, dinner,
movies, sporting events, drinks and transportation.
In April and May of this year, Dateable.com conducted
a random phone survey of flower shops, movie theaters,
restaurants, and more.
Dinner and a Movie In Los Angeles -- the average
cost for dinner and a movie is about $95.00. The
average cost in New York, however, reached about
$110.00 because of higher dinner prices and transportation
costs (i.e., cab fare). The good news: A dinner
and a movie in Philadelphia, according to our initial
survey results, averages only $75.00, a 20-25% difference.
The cost of food by thieves behind movie concession
counters was not included in our initial survey.
These figures were estimated from an index of flowers
(single stem red rose), average dinner and tip (estimated
from variety of restaurant guides), movie tickets
(randomly selected movie theatres), two drinks and
transportation (either cab fare or .31 per mile).
Sporting Events -- We also compared the average
cost for a pair of basketball tickets (all three
cities are big basketball cities). New York is the
highest with $230.00; in Los Angeles, two tickets
are $171.00; and, Philadelphia ranks third with
$79.00.
How
to Save Money On Your Next Date
In a conversation with Dateable.com, dating expert
Connie Merritt argued against such unnecessary expenses:
"It doesn't have to be expensive. Dinner at
a restaurant? Expensive and unimaginative. Barbeque
or picnic at the beach or a park? Now you're talking
-- thoughtful and not that expensive."
Another expert on the subject of dating and romance
told Dateable.com that both parties need to be open:
"Make sure the place you are going to eat is
within your budget, whoever does the asking. If
the suggested place is too expensive for you to
pay half or treat, then say something like, 'That's
a great place but it's not within my budget.'"
According to Jennifer Klein, President and Founder
of Dateable.com, the cost of dating requires a great
deal of creativity for the financially challenged.
Some ideas? Check out a poetry reading or other
events at a bookstore; attend a student art show;
and more. For a complete list of 10 Tips for Frugal
Daters, click here.
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Dateable.com
LLC 2000
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