Phoenix: Best city for a cheap date

Dating expert Whitney Casey. (Credit: WhitneyCasey.com)

Unlike the other top five cities in Match.com's list of the least expensive cities to date in, people actually want to live in Phoenix.

That's the unexpected take away from Match.com dating expert Whitney Casey, author of “The Man Plan: Drive Men Wild, Not Away.”

“Phoenix is a really big city to have be so affordable,” said Casey. “Phoenix is still an easy city to date in and a great city to live in. I mean, Pittsburgh? Detroit? You'd actually want to live in Phoenix.”

Phoenix ranks fourth, behind the Pittsburgh, Detroit and Sacramento, and just in front of Indianapolis.

Match.com, one of the country's most popular online dating sites, surveyed users ages 18 and up about how finances impacted their dating, and then looked at the price of two evening tickets to the movies and the average price of a dinner at a casual restaurant. In Phoenix, they looked at Chelsea's Kitchen, Arcadia Farms, Los Dos Molinos and Gordon Biersch Brewery.

Pittsburgh was the cheapest of the 25 cities surveyed, coming in at $77.80, while Los Angeles was the most expensive at $126.06.

It's the first time the site has organized such a survey, spurred on by the way the economic downturn is affecting people's dating habits.

And some results may be surprising.

For instance, 71 percent of those surveyed said they would date someone who was unemployed.

“Last years' unemployed equaled deadbeat; this year it means entrepreneur. It's almost a rite of passage right now,” Casey said.

While Match.com offers several tips for recession-proof dating, including going to the free days at museums and attending free yoga classes or volunteering at a local park cleanup, I have my own (as I've yet to meet a woman who thinks she's at her best while picking up trash…).

Super-impressive happy hour: Lon's at the Hermosa before 7 p.m. Select beers, wines and appetizers are $6 or less.

Cheap and swanky dinner: Meet in the lounge at Wildfish Seafood Grille, where select appetizers and cocktails are discounted all night long.

Romantic cocktail spot: At T. Cook's bar at the Royal Palms Resort from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays, all appetizers are half-off, as are all specialty cocktails, making most foods $5 to $8 and most drinks $5 to $7.