The first date is just the start of what may turn out to be the largest spending spree of your life. With the average courtship before a marriage lasting about two and a half years, dating is an increasingly expensive venture.

Flowers, presents, dinners, and movie tickets are just the start of the list of items single men need to factor into their budgets, dating and relationship experts said.

And don’t even get us started on the costs of maintaining a long-distance romance.

By the time you head down the aisle, you can easily have spent more than $40,000 on vacations , jewellery, wedding expenses, and meals out, according to our calculations .

Crazy for Love


For example, the average amount spent by a jewellery buyer in 2007 was $3,267, with men spending nearly twice as much as women, Danziger said.

"Love is a big business in the retail industry," Grannis said. "Small gifts such as a sweater, apparel , or flowers or even large gifts, such as expensive jewellery or a trip to someone’s favourite spa, or even sports tickets, really speak volumes when it comes to showing someone how much you appreciate them."