
I remember my friend returning from her honeymoon and sitting down to calculate exactly how much her relationship had cost her since the day she had gotten engaged. In her defense, she’s an accountant, so she couldn’t help herself.
Keep in mind that this was over ten years ago and if she did the same cost analysis today, it would probably be double or even triple.
She calculated that she and her new husband had spent $60,000 since their engagement including the rings, the engagement party, the wedding and the honeymoon. That’s a deposit for a house.
They were only one month into their marriage and it had already cost them a bomb. I’m tempted to ask her to update her relationship cost analysis now, over ten years later.

Maybe it’s better not to go there. In my experience (18 years together and 12 years of marriage) it’s best not to to calculate such things. Ignorance is bliss, or in this case, happiness.
Half a million dollars is the average cost of a happy marriage, according to a study by UK shopping website Quidco. That includes the wedding, regular holidays, date nights (an average of three per month) and gifts to keep the spark alive.
- What you should be spending each year to ensure a happy marriage:
- $2800 on date nights;
- $1100 on Netflix, movie downloads, snacks, takeaways and drinks;
- $535 on getting ready for date nights;
- $4600 on holidays and trips away;
- $611 on twice-monthly gifts for each other;
- $955-$2004 on jewellery.
- Figures by Qudico.
That explains a lot about the current state of my marriage. Not only did we do a cheap wedding and skip the honeymoon, we also average around three date nights per year and have never once bought jewellery for each other. I got the band of his watch fixed once, does that count?
We do spend money on both Foxtel and Netflix, however we tend to watch shows separately. I watch Foxtel in the lounge room and he watches Netflix in the office. There are several reasons for this has. We tend to like different shows, we are a complete and total entertainment mismatch. How did we ever get together? By pretending to like each other’s shows, that’s how.

Top Comments
I'm sure I read another article about another study (possibly even on this website) a few weeks back that said if you spent a lot on the engagement ring and wedding you were more likely to get divorced. You can manipulate stats to say whatever you want them to.
Twice-monthly gifts?!?!?!??!?!
We don't even do twice YEARLY gifts anymore! Been married 10 years and counting...
I don't even buy myself a gift twice a month!