If you and your other half find Singapore an expensive place to date (with not much to do), maybe you can start considering these other options.
I’m sitting at my desk all bloated from lunch, and scouring the Internet for interesting travel reads so I’d not fall asleep. Took me all about an hour to battle that food coma and land myself a beguiling story from CNN Hong Kong – ‘Cheap date index’ compares budget romance around the world!
‘Cheap Date Index’? What even is that, I question.
Answer: Deutsche Bank’s way of calculating the cost of a simple date based on where you live.
Okay. So, after scanning through the article, here’s a quick summary:
- The cheapest place to date is Mumbai, India. A romantic night out with a burger dinner, movie, drinks and cab fares cost US$11/person.
- The most expensive city to date in is London, England. Total damage: US$121 for a simple night out (I’m guessing US$60/person).
- In New York City, a date at McDonalds (movie, drinks and cab fares) will cost you US$93. NINETY-FREAKIN’-THREE!!
- Romance is not for free.
Granted, the more time you spend together, the relationship builds, but so does that hole in your pocket. And let’s be honest, how many times can you go for FREE a walk in the park without getting bored? Even that picnic basket of yours would cost a small sum.
Anyway, just for fun, I did a little math, and this is what I think a cheap date in Singapore would look like (including tax):
– Dinner at the Kopitiam w/Kopi: S$5/person
– X-Men: Days of Future Past movie on a weekend: S$12.50/person
– 2-3 drinks at a HDB bar (try Knuckles at Kovan): S$20/person
– Transportation fees (bus/MRT): S$5/person
That brings the grand total to S$42 a person. To be honest, I expected the number to be much lower, but what do you know? That’s half a day’s worth of a fresh grad’s salary!
Love birds, time to consider moving to Mumbai?
I’m no doctor or a lawyer, and I’m guessing the bulk of us start with a mean salary of S$3,000. Okay, hang on. So, maybe our “cheap dates” cost a third of our daily salary of S$130 odd (take away the CPF contribution and you’re probably eating out of a bowl of S$2,400, or $100 a day). Then again, what’s the entire day of hard work for if you don’t earn to make yourself happy (ie. Buy material goods, or in my case, eat a fantastic meal)? Or, spend to make others happy and in turn, you’re happy? (Strange, I know. But, I recently found that some people actually like doing this.)
Occasionally spend, don’t scrimp. Make yourself and others happy. And if the message still ain’t clear enough, yes, money does buy a certain amount of happiness. Do you beg to differ?
This article is written by Ashley Yeo for Vulcan Post.