No Such Thing as a Free Date

No Such Thing as a Free Date

We all know that there is no such thing as a free lunch. But do we know what that means?

Dr. Anne Bradley says,

It means that nothing is ever truly free. When someone takes you to lunch and pays for your meal, you’ve still made an investment. You gave your time and energy to be there. You chose that lunch over a variety of other things you could have done. The lunch had a cost, even if the cost was lessened by your friend paying the tab.

For example, if I have five dollars in my wallet and I am deliberating between getting a slice of pizza for lunch or going to Starbucks, and I choose Starbucks, the opportunity cost is the slice of pizza. It’s what I gave up for my coffee. Opportunity cost is relative to the person making the choice. All of us would have different preferences over how to use that same five dollars.

Dating Advice

There is also no such thing as a free date. There will always be an opportunity cost. Girls, even if he is paying for dinner (which you should, gentlemen), ask yourself these questions:

• What else could I be doing with my evening?
• How much is dinner going to cost? And what could he have spent that money on?
• Who else could I be having dinner with tonight?

Even a “no big deal” date, should be considered a big deal, because you chose to go on that date with him over watching that same movie with friends. You chose to get a coffee with him instead of stay at home and read.

And he chose to ask you to dinner, instead of that other woman. These choices are all economic decisions. They are all important.

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