legit lol

The only coupons I use at the grocery store are the ones that are literally placed next to the items I'm going to buy. Or the ones that give me something free when I purchase something I either am there to purchase, or might need to purchase soon anyway. Not worth the effort otherwise.

It's funny how much Henry has pegged me as a life nit, when I maybe will use a coupon once a month on something (besides situations where it's incredibly easy and it's just right there in front of me). In his world, there is Henry-like baller level, and Double Down's dad, and nothing in between.

Another interesting hypothetical- say you are at a bar during happy hour or at a place that has nightly drink specials. Say you normally will drink one of two different things, and it turns out one of those things is the "drink of the night" and you save $1 on it. You have no preference of either one. Do you order the daily drink (as you probably would on your own since you don't care about the difference, so the price could be the tiebreaker if you were undecided), or do you buy the more expensive one to avoid looking cheap?

So it's OK for you to judge on what someone does for work, but girls can't judge you by your car?

im saying its so far down the list. I dont care if they are hot enough sexy nuff im going to see them for a while.

See you would think girls would think same way hotness/sexuality first then personality. Last thing money.

Now i can understand if they are only looking for a husband or provider and thats the only or primary goal. Or somebody who will buy them lots of stuff.

If I show up to pick up a date in a beat-up '74 Nova that hasn't been washed in forever then I sure as hell hope the girl has SOME pre-judgement going on. Same if I were to pick her up in a Bentley while wearing a snazzy suit. These are two different types of people. And if she is thinking the exact same thing about the person given those starkly contrasted first impressions then she is indeed one weird individual.

Just as I will have some sort of initial judgement of her if she shows up wearing some daisy-duke blue-jeans cutoffs and smacking bubble-gum.

To NOT have any preconceived notions at least enter her mind when I show up in whatever car would not even be realistic or human unless maybe she had an IQ of 57 or so.

Everyone judges based on their own knowledge and past experience. Hundreds or thousands of times a day probably. It is a good thing to be able to adjust one's judgement in the face of new evidence too...which is the same as keeping an open-mind.

But if I meet you in person and you are chewing tobacco and wearing a John Deere ball-cap I am going to reasonably assume you are probably more into country music than opera.

Judge not, that ye be not judgemental.

It is more than just coupon use -- It is your attitude towards spending and anything even remotely close to a luxury good. As much as you think my read is wrong it wasn't hard for me to predict your position on engagement rings and I'm pretty sure I could predict your position on other spending questions. Even your language-- referring to spending as causing pain-- makes it clear where you stand. I think you have enough social awareness to temporarily control it but that it would upset you to be put in a situation where you had to spend in a way that was not purely pragmatic.

Happy hours are not comparable to coupons. Someone has to work at making a happy hour reflect badly on them while with coupon use it is pretty much automatic.

Yeah if you're saying "I usually drink X or Y, but today it's X because it's $1 less and I want to save $1"...then you might come off cheap. Otherwise, glance at menu, order. It's not rocket science.

keep the lessons comin henry i have a bunch of first dates comin up in the next week. I need to figure out how to overcome my 93 buick century.

I gotta say, when I first saw the thread title I had a good laugh and an out loud "hell no".

Then I got a valpak in the mail that contained a 2-1 movie ticket coupon, and I would totally use that for a date. Still not for meals though...

I'd put daytons on it and start dating black women...

CDL,

"you sit down and order drinks as normal and the waitress asks "are you using the [insert random app that has deals/coupons] for 50% off?" you have that app on your phone and it takes 30 sec to get to coupon."

Come on, that's not really realistic. I've on occasion been at a place that is slammed w/ an offer where they've asked something like "Are you using the Groupon/Scoutmob/whatever?" I'd say no on a date because I don't want to worry about figuring out what the deal/conditions/etc are.

A lot of this stuff has to do with the stage of relationship. When I'm in a relationship with someone, we'll often consider price when choosing a place - for example, a certain place has half-off bottles of wine on Wednesdays so in general we're more likely to go to that restaurant on a Weds than a Tues. But discussing stuff like that in the context of a first/second date feels weird/inappropriate. That to me is largely what this thread is about.

All,

As an aside, I'm pretty surprised at how many people find going out to dinner boring and not fun.

For the same reasons as everyone else, my most common first date is a couple of drinks somewhere. But those dates sometimes progress to dinner, and lots of future dates involve dinner. I find spending time with people I like while having some delicious food and drink to be very enjoyable.

has anything new been said in the last 800 posts or are people still coming up with extreme specific examples to poke holes in general societal rules?

dk,

"has anything new been said in the last 800 posts"

No.

I have randomly been eating at places with a 50% off scoutmob 3 or 4 times in the past ~2 months (2 of those were on dates with my gf) and didnt know it until the waiter mentioned it so it does happen. I do eat a large portion of my dinners at places with $10-20 entrees which are the types of places that have these deals with a higher frequency, so it does happen unless you exclusively visit high or low end places.

As I have said about 15 times now, I never have used a coupon on a first date, but the tone most posts take is under the assumption that I do. No one has yet been able to tell me why it would benefit the guy who uses coupons more times than not to avoid them for the first few dates. When someone can give me an explanation for this other than "he will make a better first impression" or even that the first impression will outweigh the actions he takes after several dates then I will reevaluate my stance. However, so far those saying that the first impression matters a lot tend to come across as believing that using a coupon for dinner 3x a week will be a problem in the future. For many people, including myself, it would be due to the restriction of dining options. I just see no benefit to disguising my intentions on where I will go in the future in this scenario while others seem to. Likewise, I wont spend $200 on dinner on an early date because I dont think it is an accurate portrayal of my lifestyle. Sure, I eat at places like that and enjoy them, but I spend over $50/person on a meal maybe once every month or two and I think that doing that before entering a relationship with someone is likely to lead them to believe they will often be wined and dined at upscale restaurants, which is not the case with present day me.

What is an example of my attitude toward spending anything even remotely close to a luxury good?

Just curious what you think and where your evidence for that is, other than me saying "I sometimes use coupons" and "I think bottle service is dumb" and "lol $2000 handbags".

Why is bottle service dumb?

i dont know paying 500-1500 for a bottle of vodka etc that prob cost 15-30 seems kinda bad.

CDL,

The part I thought was unrealistic was them posing it in a manner like you presented where it's like "Hey would you like to pay $100 or $50 for your bill?"

"No one has yet been able to tell me why it would benefit the guy who uses coupons more times than not to avoid them for the first few dates."

That was the point I was making wrt wine special anecdote. Let's say I'm talking to a girl I'm going to get drinks with for the first time. The conversation will focus around what we like and what might be good places for us to check out together. Same conversation w/ a girl I'm dating might also include "oh, tomorrow night that one place has super good happy hour deal." I don't think it's hiding or misrepresenting anything to not bring that up in the very early stages of a relationship. As long as you act more or less like your normal self, people can very easily get a good idea of where you are on the buy a 12-pack of Keystone Light to getting bottles at the club scale when it comes to socializing.

Guys,

Can someone just post a link to one of the "only idiots pay $500 for a $30 bottle of vodka" vs "you're paying for the space/table/experience, not the vodka" bottle service threads so that doesn't need to get repeated in this thread? Thanks.

you're paying for the luxury of sitting in a crowded, dimly lit nightclub to live out a bro-esque fantasy where even the biggest loser can be a slick baller for the night if he's willing to doll out enough money.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/12/2-2-communities/

$1500...LOL.

it's probably a bad idea to spend $5 on a beer, when you can get a sixer for $7.99. Don't ever go out..that will show them.

1500 is prob close to a weeks take home if you make 100k. sounds great!!!!