Jana Hocking reveals when women should pay for a first date

While Jana Hocking is a fan of men paying for the first date, there’s one important exception to her dating rule.

It’s one of the biggest dating conundrums of all time: who should pay when it comes to the first date?

Dating expert and host of news.com.au podcast Kinda Sorta Dating, Jana Hocking, has previously said that men should foot the bill, saying it was “assertive and manly”.

But on this week’s episode with writer Thomas Mitchell, Jana said she now believed there was one circumstance when women should open their wallet.

“I always get in trouble when I say the man should pay for the first date,” she joked.

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News.com.au columnist Jana Hocking has revealed when women should pay on the first date. Picture: Instagram/Jana Hocking

“I have rectified that, I do think now if the girl has asked the guy out, they should go halves. I still don’t think the girl should pay for all of it.”

Regardless of whether she had asked out the guy, Jana said she always went for “the reach” on first dates.

“I don’t always mean it but I always go, ‘Oh no, let’s go halves’ … more often than not guys are going, ‘OK’ and I’m like ah, dammit,” she said with a laugh.

Even splitting the bill could be costly, revealing she had recently (pre-lockdown) gone on a first date to a “really expensive wine bar”.

“I went on a date the other day and I so wasn’t into him, I was $100 out of pocket because I had to pay for half,” Jana quipped.

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Jana said women should go halves if they’ve done the asking out. Picture: Instagram/Jana Hocking

Why it’s an instant turn-on when men pay for first dates

When it comes to first dates, Jana previously explained that “if they’ve gone tight on a bill, I am instantly turned off”.

“I went out with a bloke and was chuffed when he made a big deal about paying the bill,” she wrote. “It was assertive and manly, and kind of a turn on. It also said in no uncertain terms that he enjoyed the date and was willing to invest.”

But she said it was acceptable for couples to split if they didn’t see the date going any further and “neither side really wants to invest any further”.

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She said men who go tight on dates are an instant turn off. Picture: Instagram/Jana Hocking

Jana also said on a previous Kinda Sorta Dating episode that she had failed to go for “the reach” after one particularly bad second date.

“We are definitely not going on a third date, so when he offered to pay the bill I said yes because he had really wasted my time,” she said.

Jana said she usually made the “the polite, oh no no, I’ll go halves” comment when it came to paying for a date but in this case had no intention of getting out her wallet.

“I think I am in the right with that one,” she said. “I made him pay for that date, well I didn’t make him pay, he offered and I didn’t say no.”