Don't ever take them out for dinner. I'm sure you know why. Buying dinner can be quite expensive. If you can think up a good reason, it's better to meet the person for breakfast or if you have enough time in the afternoon, lunch. That way you can save a little money without appearing to be too stingy.
lol what? This is so odd to me. I'm a pretty frugal person, so I usually try to eat pretty cheap. But paying for a nice dinner and going out and having an enjoyable experience with a person is worth a little extra cash to me. I think as long as you're not eating out every night, then there shouldn't be a problem.
Many sit down restaurants will allow you to order lunch size portions in the evenings, even if the menu doesn't explicitly list them. That would be one way to keep the costs down - especially when you consider that the full size portions are often way too big, then you wind up bringing home some smelly containers of leftover food, and/or feeling all bloated and stuffed afterwards. Or just get two or three appetizers and do a "small plates" type arrangement where you and your date can share a few things. If you are having wine, buy the whole bottle. instead of ordering two glasses of wine. You will both probably want another glass, and by then, you've already paid way more than what the bottle would have cost. The cost per glass is more when you keep buying them separately instead of a bottle at a time, plus when you buy it by the glass, they may be pouring from a bottle that had been opened the day before or so (depending on how popular the particular brand of wine is). Lunch isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if it's someone you are just meeting for the first time - I think it takes a little pressure off both of you with regards to what each others "expectations" are afterwards. Buying someone an expensive dinner can put too much pressure on the other person - who may or may not be as interested in taking it any further. I'm not so sure about breakfast though - taking someone out for a $1.99 breakfast special can be more counterproductive than anything, lol.
I don't always take others out for dining as I prefer more to cook at home and invite them to have meal together but if it was my family members then I'm always happy to treat them once in a while providing that I have more than enough extra money to cover the bill.
The cost here for food is really about the same, there isn't really much savings between lunch and dinner. Similar to another thread, prices here for fast food run average 10 dollars apiece, and dinner meals the cheapest run about 10 to 15 apiece. Plus you can get a lunch size as was mentioned. I tell ya what, for a nice date meal (I'm in relationship, so I'm guessing) would be what hubby and I experience at some of the places such as Appleby's and others that run the 10 to 18 or so a person type range, also run a 2 for 20 or a 2 for 25. It's where you get an appetizer, 2 entry's, and a soup or salad, etc. It's a good deal. Many menu items are not on it tho, but it's still a good suggestion for a dinner date.
If I had any interest in more romantic relationships, I would love to cook for my date. As it is, I would love to cook for my friends. I prefer to keep things platonic. Anyway, I've got some bread rising for it's first rising and in about 15 minutes I'm going to be putting it into its loaf pan for its second rising. This is the first time I'm using bread flour rather than all-purpose.
In my area, breakfast menus did used to cost significantly less, but nowadays they are priced pretty much the same even though they are still somewhat cheaper than the dinner menu. I still do prefer to meet at daytime, though, but it's more for just having much more energy as compared to meeting at night when I just want to relax rather than for saving money. If it is cheaper to buy breakfast in your area, I can see how this could be useful, and if you really wanted to save, you could even just invite them to your home and just cook for them since it could show off your skills and you can also save money at the same time.
I'm not sure that I'd agree with this. Yes it may save you some money, but at the cost of any potential second date. A lot of people aren't going to be too happy if you're there counting out just how much this is going to cost you, never mind that some people either can't make a breakfast date, or just prefer dinner dates.
Haha, well you can always chose to go to somewhere cheap xD On my first date I went to an amusement part with my boyfriend, it was a lot of fun and we had mac and cheese for dinner haha. One of the best mac and cheese that the city had to offer actually. It wasn't as cheap as I would've thought it to be though. We also had a crepe. I say that you can take someone out for dinner, but not all the time, it can be a treat.
