Why it’s nearly 1,000% more expensive to find love as a man
03 July 2019Cost of Courtship: Why it’s nearly 1,000% more expensive to find love as a man
They say money can’t buy happiness. We disagree. It’s just VERY expensive.
From grooming and transport, to food, drinks and gifts - dating can get expensive. Worse still, that investment can all be for nothing if the person you’re wooing doesn’t turn out to be ‘the one’. So how much does it actually cost to get into a relationship? Tearing down the veil, vouchercloud.com has done the research… and it’s not looking good for the fellas.
From our data, the cost of an average date can change by 25% depending on whether you’re a man or woman paying the bill. Men reported their dates to cost £41.14 — 13.96% above the average. Women, however, reported dates costing 13.51% below the average at £31.22 per date.
Surveying 2,000 Brits from across the country*, we’ve found the average cost per date to be £36.10. At 8.15 dates on average, we’re looking at a £294.21 investment before that relationship becomes ‘official’.
But as they say, you can drown a statistician in a lake that’s two feet deep “on average”. Let’s dig deeper.
Money talks, but who pays the bill?
When asked who pays for the bill, 70% of men claimed they paid the bill almost all the time (75% of the time or more) compared to just 8.7% of women. So let’s do a little cost adjustment based on those percentages.
Men:
8.13 dates at £41.14 per date equals £334.46 spent. With 70% of men paying “nearly all the time”, that leaves us with £234.12 across all these dates.
Women:
8.18 dates at £31.22 per date leaves us with a £255.37 spend. With 8.7% of women paying “nearly all the time”, we’re left with £22.21 to get into a serious relationship.
That’s right, we’re looking at a 954% difference in the cost of dates as a man versus as a woman.
Notably, 1.8% of men claimed to never pay (25% of the time or less) versus 44.4% of women. 28.2% of men, and 46.9% of women claim to split the bill respectively. This fits for women dating other women… but for men dating men (who reportedly pay nearly all the time) we can imagine the shuffle for the bill gets a little more intense.
What happens when you include gifting and personal grooming?
According to our research, men spend 134% more on gifts for their prospective partners than women do - £143.27 versus £61.19. What’s surprising is that men actually spend MORE on their personal appearance than their counterparts!
During the dating process (before becoming official) men spent an average of £86.32, versus £75.70 for women. Despite that, women slightly beat the men on the biggest spend. 1.7% of women admitted to spending £500+ on grooming and personal appearance - including new clothes, make-up and hair cuts - compared to 1.5% of men.
Men adjusted:
£234.12 + 143.27 + 86.32 = £463.71
Women adjusted: £22.21 + 61.19 + 75.70 = £159.10
Overall date spend by age group
Overall, we see some significant differences in date spend by age group. Women spend £366 less than men in the 25-34 age group to ‘become official’, with the difference mirrored across the board. The most equal spend is the 18-24 age group, with men paying, on average, just £180 more over the duration of their courtship.
*Survey sampled a nationally representative cross-section of 2,000 Brits across the country. Figures available on request.
Feeling inspired? Why not head to our dating vouchers page to save on membership of an app to bring some romance into your life.
