New York's singles resort to creative romance

Paying your date's bar tab with a coupon is not generally seen as the best way to impress. But as New York's singles' crowd comes to grips with the recession, it is starting to see such potentially embarrassing options as a better alternative to going broke.

Carnage on Wall Street has led to tens of thousands of redundancies in New York, many of them focused squarely on the city's striving young and middle-aged single classes.

But that does not mean finding love is not a priority. The dating business is booming, according to Christie Nightingale, owner of dating service Premier Match, who just enjoyed the best fourth quarter in her nine years in the business.

"When they're getting clobbered at work and are on the verge of being fired, it plays on the psyche and gets people thinking about relationships," she said.

Searching for a soulmate can be expensive, however, and people who normally rely on their bank accounts as wooing weapons are feeling impotent.

Not everyone is eschewing foie gras in favour of liverwurst. Some single New Yorkers with jobs are still throwing financial caution to the wind.

But many singles are finding creative ways to spend less money without ruining the image they're trying to project.

Ms Nightingale has advised clients – who pay up to $15,000 (Euro 11,643, £10,500) a year – to meet dates during happy hours, in hotel lobbies that offer live jazz, or at bars where women drink for free. She even counsels clients to use coupons to get discounts at restaurants: "I tell the guys to slip it in behind the credit card, and pay without the date knowing," she said. "None of the guys have gotten caught yet, as far as I've heard."

Rather than dropping cash on expensive wines or ornate floral arrangements, those looking to impress are racking their brains for sentimental and inventive ideas.

Luis Collazo, owner of Lotus Flowers, said his clients continue to shell out for high-quality blooms, but they're buying just a few at a time.

To account for their more modest outlays, Mr Collazo's clients are putting pen to paper and drafting heartfelt notes to accompany bouquets, even requesting advice on what to write.

"Men are still buying flowers, but they're not being as frivolous as they used to be," Mr Collazo said. "They're making up for it by going the extra mile to add a deeper meaning, making it more thoughtful."

Divorce rates often tick higher at the first sign of an economic slump, as "mice scramble to get off the ship", according to Raoul Felder, a well-known divorce lawyer. But New York has worsened past that point.

Mr Felder says the city's divorce rate is down 25 per cent from early 2008, as unhappy spouses opt to wait out the crisis rather than be forced to divide up relatively meagre spoils.

"They may have changed the rules in the middle of the game, but there's no other game to play," he said. "So they're stuck."

Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 2009