About FirstDateTab

FirstDateTab tracks what first dates actually cost, city by city, and who ends up paying. It starts from published studies and is built to switch over to anonymous reader receipts as they come in.

Sources and method

• MoneyLion (2026-07-08): Expatistan cost-of-living figures: three-course dinner for two with wine, 20% tip on dinner, two movie tickets, round-trip taxi, one beer and one cocktail. 50 largest US cities. Published 2026-07-08; data as of 2026-06-24.
• Mandoe Media (2026-04-20): Menu prices from 501 OpenTable-listed restaurants in 22 cities. One shared starter, two mains, two cocktails; city median. Excludes tip and tax; skews mid-market/upscale. Published 2026-04-20; data as of 2026-04-20.
• data.upneja.ai (2026-06): Numbeo June 2026 prices: two restaurant beers, mid-range dinner for two, round-trip transit for two, 20% tip. 6 cities. Published 2026-06; data as of 2026-06.
• JG Wentworth survey (2026-04-08): Online survey of 1,538 US adults, March 2026 (67.9% female, 31.9% male). Self-reported. Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Published 2026-04-08; data as of 2026-03.

Seed figures are copied as published, never blended across sources. A city's reader median becomes its headline once it has 10 approved submissions. Submissions are moderated for obvious junk (for example, $0 dinners at steakhouses or $9,000 coffee) before they count.

Affiliate disclosure

FirstDateTab is reader-supported. Some links, including the "Spend less, match better" cards and the links on our dating tools and profile tool comparison pages, are affiliate links: we may earn a commission if you buy through them, at no cost to you. The "Date ideas" links on city pages go to GetYourGuide and are affiliate links too. Current affiliate partners: TinderProfile.ai, Fotto.AI, GetYourGuide. Affiliate links are marked as sponsored and open in a new tab.

Commissions never change our numbers, and vendors can't pay to change what we print or how they're ranked. Product details come from the vendors' own pages; we don't publish ratings or results we haven't measured ourselves.

Privacy

The submission form asks for no names, emails or photos. Please don't add any. Submissions are stored in our own database on Cloudflare (with Formspree as a backup if it is unreachable). We never store IP addresses, only a short-lived scrambled code used to stop spam. Full details are in our privacy policy. The newsletter runs on beehiiv, and subscriber emails are used only to send the newsletter.

Contact, press and sponsorships

Questions, corrections, press requests, sponsorship or advertising ideas, or interest in our anonymized first-date cost insights? Get in touch here.