Paying for food, movies...etc. on a date

[Smith]

Hey guys,

I usually let girls pay for their own food..etc. when we haven't slept together yet. So I'm curious once you've started to see her regularly following GC's advice, do you start to pay for dinner and movies when you guys go out? or do you still pay separately? I know this is may be more of a personal choice, but I'm curious to know what your reasons are. In my past relationships, I usually still go for paying separately, but sometimes it seems a little awkward when you're at the counter and you tell the waiter to split the check. It can come across as cheap sometimes. My belief is that she should invest just as much if she wants to hang out with me. What do you guys think?
Also how would you guys propose to pay separately without hurting her feeling? lol I usually just tell the waiter "I'll pay for XX and XX" and hopefully she'll get the idea that we're paying separately, but I'm wondering if you need to verbalize it first beforehand to let her know you would like to pay separately.

Cheers
Smith

 

[Lotus]

I've settled at around 60/40. The extra 10 percent comes from those situations where I feel asking would make me look cheap, but it really doesn't happen often.

Rather then worrying about splitting everything I focus more on alternating. "I'll buy the tickets if you buy the popcorn and drink"

At restaurants/bars it's really easy to just give waiters 2 cards and have it split halfway rather then "I'll buy mine, you buy yours", if you drank/ate more offer to cover the tip.

But other then that I've found it's easiest to alternate and offer to buy the first round if she gets the second.

IE- I'm going out with my girl one last time before moving. We decided to go out to dinner and get a hotel room. She's paying for the room and I'm getting dinner + wine.