#50 Cheap Dates

Blame it on the recession if your recent dates have been questionable, embarrassing, or borderline absurd. Chances are your new dream guy or girl has been laid off and just hasn’t gotten around to breaking the news to their new love interest out of fear they’ll never get another date. It’s an awkward topic to tackle at first but given today’s 8.5% unemployment rate announcement, it’s very likely both parties on the date are unemployed. 

If you’re unemployed and asking out someone who still has a job, more power to you. If you’re unemployed waiting to be asked out on a date, just be thankful someone’s getting you out of the house and remember to shower before heading out. Going on dates is all part of the “staying human” process that unemployed folk have to go through so as not to spiral into a giant ball of depression. A date is a chance to get out and do something social, and if early warning signs present themselves, it’s a great opportunity to practice lying through your teeth about not being an unemployed slob all other nights of the week. 

Given that unemployment obviously puts a strain on the wallet, there’s no shame in doing whatever it takes to get out of the house. Seriously, would you rather be taken to eat free samples at Costco by a handsome man or sit in your couch groove all day wishing you could even get into Costco without a membership card? Not all cheap dates have to be a total downer. After previously scouring the internet for free things to do, the unemployed are already pretty good at finding sites like FreeShiet.com that list free events, food, and products that could potentially be used during a cheap date. There are also plenty of books (that you can find at the library) that are all about how to stretch a dollar creatively. 

Want to find a good happy hour? Try going to the free Hefeweizen tasting at BevMo, being held today from 4pm-7pm. To make the most of it, ask for two cups - one for yourself and one for your date, and then have your date do the same. If your date happens to be a cheap date, two tastes might even be enough to get you out of paying for dinner. Care to pretend you’re cultured? Take your date to a museum on one of their free days and impress him/her with the sacked lunch you’ve brought from home to avoid paying outrageous museum cafe prices. If you’re lucky, and your dates progress into having a significant other, you guys can hold hands and spin in circles laughing in glee at a free botanical garden, your love sealed by living in a recession bubble pretending everything’s going to be okay.

Tags: cheap dates, free stuff, recession, stretching a dollar, things to do when unemployed, unemployment rates