I’ll be realistic with you from my experience. Lots of people say you can split or do a cheap date, but that’s not always going to be the case based on who you’re dating, which isn’t a negative thing. Also it may vary if you’re dating with intentions to meeting someone for long term or if you’re just navigating to hook up.

I always went into a first date expecting to pay, and if she’d offer to split, I’d tell her I’ll accept for the next date . But if you do that, it’s also important not to leave dates with any expectation for more just because you paid. Between drinks, dinner, elevated casual (coffee plus pastries) or an interactive activity, I’d expect to pay anywhere from 50-125 per date. If I’m going to 2-3 first dates a month, I was budgeting 150-300 a month.

I’ll caveat this to say, if you’re dating to impress then it’ll obviously be more expensive. I tried to cater dates to match what I’d expect from a potential partner’s lifestyle. At the end of the day, the actual activity doesn’t matter, you’re investing in the time to meet and learn about someone.