3 Simple Tips For Dating On A Budget
By Katie Eiler
I’m usually pretty strict about my budget--at the grocery store or the mall, I have a well-developed ‘you don’t really need that, Katie’ reflex.
But put an eligible lady in front of me and the credit card is OUT and SWIPING. Much like the Australian Bowerbird, my courtship instincts tend towards ‘arrange fun-colored presents in a heap and wiggle invitingly’.
However! Dating is about connection, chemistry, and compatibility, not about handing out croissants to people until you are married (now, imagine me saying this to myself in a mirror). There are lots of ways to show your interest that don’t involve breaking the bank--and you might just get to know each better, too.
Eyeball The Calendar
If you do a little digging (depending on where you live) you’d be surprised at the amount of free events going on in your area. Art walks, free museum days, free concerts, readings in bookstores--all events that scream ‘I’m cultured! Please make out with me!’
Plus, dates that have something built-in for you to talk about and exchange opinions on is a good way to sidestep that common first-date moment where you’re just kind of staring at each other nervously. Stare at a local artist’s woodcut instead!
Play To The Season
Hikes! Walks! Picnics! Sexy snowball fights! Guess how cute you would look leaning on one elbow on a picnic blanket, laughing charmingly and eating grapes? Very cute.
Listen, I’m a spindly asthmatic with weak ankles. I am not exactly the outdoorsy type, and I’m saying this as a lesbian living in the hiking capital of the Pacific Northwest, where ‘outdoorsy type’ is practically a requirement. But I can eat cheese next to a bunch of flowers, or sit on a bench with coffee and point out birds, and by god I will.
Get Personal
At the end of the day, a successful date is one that you both have fun on. And in order to plan a nice evening out, you have to really listen to what your date is into.
Take the sporty spice to free skate at a roller rink or out dancing. Grill your Pitchfork-y friends for the hottest local band to take your music fan to (tip: undiscovered = less expensive tickets + indie cred, it’s a winner).
And, cheesy but true: give the gift of attention. Even if you can’t say it with diamonds, saying it with heartfelt notes, homemade cookies, or long, twilight strolls can be just as nice.
Katie Eiler is a playwright/paralegal/community organizer living in Seattle (she only gets paid for the middle one). She graduated from NYU in 2016, and her play Crunch was produced at the 2018 Son of Semele Company Creation Festival and the 2018 Los Angeles Fringe Festival. She's a natural tightwad whose love language is gift-giving, which can get complicated.
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