A Dating Stimulus Check

A friend of mine tried out E-Harmony a few months ago. Thrilled by this boldness and willingness to go where none of us had gone before we naturally assumed our friend would be dating around the clock. Our friend is cute, fun, and had an honest profile that should have reeled in many single onlookers.

Unfortunately our friend didn't have any luck on it. You can see who has viewed your profile and our friend didn't have many singles viewing hers, despite the fact she had many matches and few "bite" here and there. This made me think that not many men where online and spending time checking their account and matches, beacuse she is a catch. At first we blamed the holidays and people being too busy with parties and traveling, but after January came and went we didn't know what to blame the lack of activity on.

Until now...

I can't believe it didn't even cross my mind! How could we be so blind!

We are in a recession. People are getting laid off. Each penny is being accounted for in our checkbooks. And dating can be expensive (for both parties). If I was a single guy who was a little strapped for cash, the last thing I would do is take out blind dates from the Internet. That could potentially be a big waste of money (unless you're a hopeless romantic and believe your future soul mate is a mouse click away.) But I think most of us agree that dates don't often work out, and while it only takes just one person, you definitely have to sift through quite a few before getting there.

My girlfriends and I have been carefully budgeting our money in the last month. We're accounting for rent, utilities, groceries, gas, entertainment, and saving (for Italy!!), and I don't have a "date budget" listed. So if a guy is in a similar financial situation as me, he probably doesn't have $200 lying around each month to spend on wining and dining the ladies.

So I can't blame people for not being too adventurous in dating right now, both online or in person. Of course no one wants to admit to being cheap and using that as an excuse. But it's a lot easier to tell your friends you'd rather not try that fancy restaurant than to ask your date if she could order chicken instead of lobster and skip the glass of wine.

So maybe our President could put together a dating stimulus check of sorts. Just a small dollar amount that could help these men get out on Saturday nights and meet people. Dating is hard enough as it is, but it can be really difficult if no one is even asking each other out.