What is the monetary cost of swinging for you?

[Spoomonkey]

Originally Posted by northindycpl

The $22 for the drinks before dinner was for my martini and a beer for the MR. Does that price seem too high to you guys?

Wow...

And I crap my pants if I miss happy hour...



I see beers for up to four bucks and mixed drinks around 5-6... Either way - that's only ten bucks for a round...

People are going to pay what they are comfortable with, but for us, we enjoy Appleby's, Logan's and even Smokey Bones. Good food that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. We ate at Tony Roma's this weekend and it was a little higher than we are used to - and the food sucked... And not in a good way - more like a disinterested truck stop hooker with three teeth and a gut full of sleeping pills...

There are some great places - and even then, eating out is always kind of expensive. For us, though, we tell people flat out that we don't have the money or the desire to impress them - and then we suggest something more budget friendly.

But - there is nothing wrong at all with spending 22 bucks for drinks if you can afford it - like the restaurant - and want to do it. Enjoying yourself is what this is all about, right?

Spoomonkey

[Mrs Spoomonkey]

Originally Posted by Botcpl

Ms Botcpl and I can easily go through $ 80-100 for dinner & drinks for just the two of us.

[QUOTE=northindycpl}The $22 for the drinks before dinner was for my martini and a beer for the MR. Does that price seem too high to you guys?[/QUOTE]


Wow!!! I hate to say it but either you guys live where there are no nice inexpensive restaurants or we are just really cheap.

I think the most expensive meal w/drinks we've had out for the two of us is about $50 and that's if we throw caution to the wind and get appetizers and a couple of drinks (beer for him and smirnoff etc. for me) We usually like places like Logan's steak house or Texas Roadhouse or On the Boarder for mexican.

When we go to the club it's free beer for Mr Spoo (he makes it on his weekend job so that's the least they can do ) although even when we buy it beer isn't that much and a 6 pack of smirnoff on sale is less then $10 so our drinking at the club is less than $20 maybe even $15.

I guess the bottom line is if you can afford it great, if not I think there are always ways to cut back. Choose a different type of drink, restaurant, etc. This should be fun not financially stressful.

Mrs Spoomonkey

[LikeMinds321]

We've got a get-to-know-you-and-see-if-we-click meeting set up for Sunday with a new couple.

We're meeting at Perkins.

I'm indulging in the $5.95 big breakfast special: 3 pancakes, 2 sausage links, hash browns, and 2 eggs - scrambled. Mr LM will have the same.

LM

[northindycpl]

Originally Posted by LikeMinds321

We've got a get-to-know-you-and-see-if-we-click meeting set up for Sunday with a new couple.

We're meeting at Perkins.

I'm indulging in the $5.95 big breakfast special: 3 pancakes, 2 sausage links, hash browns, and 2 eggs - scrambled. Mr LM will have the same.

LM

You rock, LM! What a great idea!

[newgentry]

$22 for one round of drinks?? Yeah that seems VERY high to me.

[Botcpl]

Originally Posted by Botcpl

It costs $ to have a good time.

Ms Botcpl and I can easily go through $ 80-100 for dinner & drinks for just the two of us.

P

Well, it is a nice place. That is basically what it costs, this is a jazz club so we're paying for more than the food. We could go to "Tommy's" (A hamburger place out here), but the candles keep getting blown out in the dinning room "the patio". I can feed the four of us for $20, but it ain't so romantic.

Drinks at hotels are very expensive, drinks at our yacht club are more realistic , $3.50 for well drinks, $4.50 for a Martini., $2.00 for draft beer, but the patio overlooking the marina is free.

P

[eager4more]

In articles/shows about swinging (ok, the more positive ones) they make a point to say that the swingers are solid middle class people, and then toss out some examples of their interviewee's professions, like "even doctors and bankers do it!" But don't they most often go to clubs to find these people, where the fees are ~$80 - $100 for the on premise clubs in big cities? Who else can afford that? And it takes a certain amount of money to be able to attend conventions and stuff. We have friends who go to clubs almost every weekend (off-premise, still expensive but not as much) and those who only go for special occasions. I think swinging is the same as most hobbies - the sky's the limit on how much you can spend, but as Mrs. Spoomoney said,

"I guess the bottom line is if you can afford it great, if not I think there are always ways to cut back. Choose a different type of drink, restaurant, etc. This should be fun not financially stressful."

[Vespertine]

Originally Posted by Botcpl

It costs $ to have a good time.

Ms Botcpl and I can easily go through $ 80-100 for dinner & drinks for just the two of us.

Dito

That's about the normal price for us when we go out around here.

I think it's a matter of location.

[sensuality]

It all boils down to living within your means.

Over the course of this last year and a half, I have bought a new outfit/shoes/and/or lingerie every month when we go out,I have now gotten to the point where I can rotate outfits.That can cost anywhere from $75-$150 or more.I figure by next year, I'll have to get some more things! <EG> However, I always buy new thongs for the occasion! facelick
Yes, it can/does get expensive.We usually pay $90-$125 for our room,then $10-$100 to get into whatever club of choice for that night.But, then the drinks are included at on-premise clubs so that takes care of that. Hmm. I'd say we spend about $3-400.00 when we go out for everything, but it's just one Saturday a month and we have so much fun.Right now, that's all we can swing due to babysitter issues, who knows what we'd spend if we had more time!

[JustAskJulie]

I think it is a matter of what you can afford. Some can barely afford to go to a club once a month (let alone go out to dinner first or get a hotel afterwards), while others can afford to go out every weekend and pay out a couple hundred for each outting.

At the same time, I've seen couples who really can't afford it but they have made swinging so much of a priority that they will forfeit other things that should be a higher priority in order to pay for it.

[C4CIN]

We meet at clubs and house parties most of the time- the membership is already there and the places we go serve dinner... No hotel needed then since we always go home (not empty nesters)... We find the cost to be what we spend for non swinging activities then... Love the breakfast idea!

[LikeMinds321]

How much will you pay for sex?

Since we began swinging a couple years ago it has turned out that we've always played on the first meet when we met a compatible couple. We've played with only a few couples and never expected to play on first meeting; it just happened that way.

Nearly everyone we've met lives 2 hours away. This means $50+ in gas, 1/2 hotel cost ($60+), drinks, maybe some dinner, club/bar entrance fees. It's always been fun and we have felt it was worth the money for a first meet that turned into swinging.

A few months ago Mr LM and I decided that we'd try not playing on the first meet, to see if that has some advantage. Reasons: On one occasion we probably wouldn't have played had we went home and took time to discuss some things that transpired during the meet, and with another couple we later found out that they felt things moved too fast (even though we've all continued to see each other) and so we wonder if more couples would prefer to wait until the second meet. The downside to this is cost.

We are traveling this weekend to meet a new couple and I just realized that if we wait until a second meet to swing (presuming we'll all want to swing) we will end up spending $300 to have sex! Our swing costs double with this wait-until-the-second-date approach. That's a lot of moolah for us.

The thought of this has put a damper on my outlook on swinging. It puts pressure on us to swing on the first meet, to have a hotel lined up when (if it turns out we're not compatible) we would prefer to drive home instead of staying overnight and incurring the cost of a hotel room that won't get used for swinging.

There are many reasons why we more often meet people out of town, but I won't go into those. Also, even if we are ready to jump in bed at this first meet, the other couple may prefer to wait, which still means big $$$ to play.

My questions: Do you take the cost of swinging into consideration when choosing playmates? How much influence does cost have? Do/Would the costs of swinging keep you from participating in the lifestyle?

LM

[DGrey]

We always keep the costs in mind. We are unable to entertain in our home even when we have outside babysitting for our daughter. We share a 3 family house with family and the walls are very thin. Kind of puts a damper on things.

Our first night out in the scene we were invited to a house party so there was no cost there except for the bar tab from the meet and greet. We don't frequent clubs so we don't incur those types of costs either.

We have a couple with whom we are close and most of the time, end up at their house. We recently met with a couple who were a little farther out that we'd normally travel but they had already extended the invitation to stay regardless of how the night progressed. It progressed just fine and breakfast the next morning was wonderful.

I couldn't see spending $300 to have sex though. We prefer to set up meetings with people who live close and can entertain because we can't. If we're invited into someone's home we always bring something and will pick up the bar/dinner tab though (assuming they let us).

E

[bear_and_babe]

Cost is one of the factors in our decision to keep our swing activities at swing clubs. I know a lot of people knock clubs, but we have found that it is more cost effective for us. If we go on a Friday night the cost is under $50. We tried the "one-on-one" dating and just got tired of getting stood up and all the hassle to set up a time and place to meet. And when we go to a club, even if we don't play Bear and I have a good time dancing, playing pool, hanging out in the hot tub and just being together. I know not everyone is into clubs or even have a club close by. I guess we are lucky that it only takes us 15 min. to get to ours.

[good times]

Well, if we have to travel real far then we have found that we just need to play multiple times in order to spread the cost out over several sex sessions. Therefore, the cost per sex session is lower than if we traveled a long way and only had sex once.

Seriously, we don't have to travel as far and spend as much as you do so it ends up working out to about the same cost as any other "night on the town" would cost for us. So it hasn't been much of a consideration so far.