Dating Women Using Groupons

By: Will Lipovsky

Feel free to judge me. This is what I’ve done on two dates…

The first thing I did each time was find out where the woman lives if I didn’t already know, to pick a nearby restaurant. Sitting in traffic can really put the brakes on an evening. Then I ask what type of food she likes: Italian, Thai, whatever. Next, her dietary concerns: I met a vegan girl once. I’m really glad I asked, otherwise I would’ve risked taking her to one of those places with a giant rotating meat skewer.

After making sure these requirements were met, I got on Groupon. If there’s a restaurant that meets my checklist, and has a Groupon, I pick it. The first time I did this, I managed to get the waitress alone long enough to hand her the Groupon and explain. That worked well.

There’s almost no chance my date knew her lamb and cashew butter macaroni was 40 percent off.

Although this whole issue did distract me from dinner somewhat.

The second date was a disaster. I took a different woman to a Thai restaurant where I’d never been. The opportunity didn’t arrive to discreetly give the waiter my Groupon. But what happened next made me wish I had made an opportunity.

What I did was take the bill folder when it came and discretely inserted the folded up Groupon.

This is when things got awkward. Apparently, the waiter had never used a Groupon before. He acted like he didn’t even know there was a promotion. He took it out in front of us, unfolded it and questioned everything about it.

Nothing is a bigger mood killer than having a Thai man with poor English pointing at your date’s food and saying how much of a discount I may or may not be receiving.

Her sushi would not be discounted, I was informed. In retrospect, it’s kind of funny. At the time, I’m sure I was red with embarrassment. Ah, gotta love dating.

You’d think that would have ruined the evening but it didn’t. Well, maybe not.

My date went on to say how attractive she found people who “have their finances in order”. She talked about how she had been on her own financially since she turned 18.

So although the Groupon felt very much like an embarrassing disaster, it turned out to be an easy segue into that all-too-awkward time in a relationship where money gets discussed for the first time.

Check out CentSai.com to read the rest of this article and to read other personal stories about finance.