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Recession Tip: Make Match.com Suckers Pay For Your Expensive Dinners
By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 29, 2011
Modified Nov 30, 2011
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By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 29, 2011
Modified Nov 30, 2011
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Sure, we're spending billions on holiday season shopping, but food is expensive in NYC and incomes aren't rising. Which is why there are enterprising individuals like one 23-year-old who used Match.com to find men to take her out to fancy restaurants five days a week.
Business Insider found Jessica Sporty, whose "$45k salary was not enough and she needed at least an extra $500 a month and sometimes $1,000 to pay her credit card bills and afford her $1,475 a month apartment in Murray Hill. Then she discovered Match.com- the perfect site for a broke 23-year-old." Sporty gives what must surely be Match.com's next testimonial, "Before I barely had enough money to pay for food. After using Match.com I found I wasn’t going into debt anymore."
Before you freak out, don't worry, it sounds like she was targeting the 1%, or at least 1% wannabes,"The investment banker types were thrilled to woo her with extraordinary restaurants like the underground taqueria La Esquina and a Japanese restaurant, Megu, in Tribeca. One guy even took her to a champagne bar and purchased a $200 bottle." And don't worry, she didn't lead these guys on: "Sporty started eating out five nights a week using a rotation of different guys she met through the dating site. She kept things simple—no more than five dates with the same guy." Because after five dates, you've probably used up your excuse that Aunt Flo is in town.
Prior to the magical online dating solution (dubbed "food hooking" by some, infuriating by others), Sporty was spending $500/month on dinners, but then her dates were paying about $60 for her portion of each meal (which is a low estimate of what a date costs in NYC, BTW). And she extended her savings by "stop[ping] eating lunch and opt[ing] for a light breakfast" plus turned her roommates onto the idea ("One of them called for making spreadsheets about each guy who took them out for their drinks and/or meals. It included names, photos and details from their Match.com accounts"). Sporty has since called it quits: "It was exhausting. I needed my sleep and I was done playing the game." Don't hate the player, HATE THE GAME!
There's still good news for men: Apparently income of NYC single women in their 20s is 17% higher than their male counterparts.
Tagged
dating
depressing
dinner
match.com
meals
online dating
recession
Savings
what women's lib
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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