This Is How Much One Weekend Costs When You're A Single Girl

Being single is ridiculously expensive.

And no, it isn't just expensive for all you single dudes out there buying shots for girls at the bar and worrying about how much you're spending on dates, as our new survey shows.

The ladies have it hard, too.

When you're just a 20-something fighting the day-to-day battle of working hard every day of the week, you want to play just as hard on the weekends.

This inevitably ends up burning one huge hole through your wallet... especially if you live in New York City.

When you're single, you obviously don't have a boyfriend to pay for dinner or buy you drinks. So when you go out, you are single-handedly getting yourself hammered with your own money, aside from the occasional free shot from a friendly bartender or relentlessly creepy guy.

You're also buying yourself fancy dinners, paying for all your Uber rides and treating yourself to blowouts to make yourself feel beautiful.

The problem is, living the extravagant, "getting drunk all the time because that's just what single people do" lifestyle isn't exactly the most sustainable thing to do.

Of course, cutting costs would be a good solution, but it's a lot harder than it sounds.

So, you end up having two options: You can drink, shop, eat out and be broke all the time, or you can do all those things in moderation and save your money.

But because the latter just sounds like a depressing life to live (for me, at least), you learn to accept that being single always means being either broke and drunk or broke and hungover.

On one recent weekend, I was all three of those things, and I documented all of the costs that came with it. So let me break down how expensive a typical weekend is for a single girl:

Friday:

Friday night was my friend's birthday. I knew I'd be spending quite a bit of money that night, so I tried not to splurge too much during the day.

The only food I spent money on that day was lunch because, hey, a single gal needs to indulge in her favorite food every now and then.

I also had to get a manicure because my nails looked dead AF.

You see, single girl maintenance costs are pretty darn high. We like to look our best all the time because we never know when we'll meet ~the one~.

Single girl maintenance costs are pretty darn high.

After getting my nails done, I bought my friend some Jack Daniels as a birthday present and headed to the birthday pregame... which eventually led to bar-hopping, a pretty hefty bar tab and an expensive (and somewhat nauseating) cab ride home.

I never feel comfortable asking guys to buy me drinks at the bar because I always feel like I owe them something afterward. Plus, I don't want them following me around the entire night, so I just buy my own drinks.

And yes, cabs are a total rip-off, but when you're a single girl, it's not always safe to take the subway home alone late at night. Sometimes, I wish I had a boyfriend just so he could split the cab fare with me.

The damage: $140

Saturday:

Saturday was chore day, and I have a routine: I wake up, grab Starbucks, go to the gym, do laundry, clean my apartment, buy new candles and then maybe grab a nap while listening to Sara Bareilles before the sun sets.

I enjoy my Saturdays to myself, as I find calm in the monotony of chores. (Is that weird?) I love that I can just plug in my headphones, be productive and be alone with my thoughts before I'm reunited with my rowdy friends later in the night.

I'd imagine being with a boyfriend all day and with friends all night would leave me feeling mentally exhausted. And I need that time to myself (which is probably why I'm single).

I'd imagine being with a boyfriend all day and with friends all night would leave me feeling exhausted.

Once Saturday night came, though, it was yet another birthday night. (No wonder I'm so broke.) I ended up meeting my friend for dinner, and then, we headed to a bar. And, as single girls do, we pampered ourselves.

Despite the fact that my friends and I don't really have the budget to go to classy speakeasies boasting $17 cocktails instead of seedy dive bars, we do just that.

I mean, going to places with men who are equally as beautiful as the drinks and decor is one of our few joys in life. (Don't you money-shame us — YOU DON'T KNOW OUR LIVES.)

So, because I believe every single girl should live each day as if she's Carrie Bradshaw, I found myself ordering refills of the most bougie drink on the menu.

Drunk me also really likes to smoke cigarettes, but I don't have a cigarette-smoking boyfriend, so I ventured out and bought a pack myself. Although, when you're a cigarette-smoking single girl, you eventually get to talking with fellow cigarette-smoking single guys.

But, uh, don't smoke, you guys.

My biggest complaint of the night is wishing I had a guy to buy dinner for me. And honestly, I'm morally opposed to spending $30 on fajitas in the first place. I only bit the bullet because it was a bestie's birthday.

The damage: $100

I'd like to add that I also got $1 pizza at 3 am, but I was too embarrassed to include that in the total cost, even though it was the cheapest and arguably most pleasurable part of my night.

At least when you're single, you can go home, devour pizza in bed and no one will be there to judge you for your savage yet impressive appetite.

Sunday:

Sunday ended up being super low-key. It's safe to say on any given Sunday, I'm usually pretty hungover and neither willing nor able to leave my bed.

That being said, I did have to make a trip to the grocery store because the contents of my fridge were limited to beer and chocolate.

I don't often wish I had a live-in boyfriend, but when I do, it's typically when I'm at the grocery store. I think it'd be nice to have someone to do mundane things with, like shopping for groceries (and, you know, to split the cost with).

Later in the day, I also ended up going to Zara and buying myself a new pair of pants since Sundays make me feel super single. And whenever I have those rare, vulnerable moments, I just shop away the pain.

The damage: $120

Look, it isn't always easy being single — that's obvious. But ultimately, I'd say it's worth it. Even though you might spend like a Rockefeller sometimes, you still learn how to stand on your own two feet.

Despite being a solid eight on a drunk scale of one to 10, I got myself home safely to my studio apartment both nights. And, I didn't have a problem making time to see my good friends because I didn't have to argue with a boyfriend over whose friends we should hang out with that night.

One weekend in the life of a single girl costs hundreds.

I was able to fill my weekend solely with things I wanted to do, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

As a single girl, you learn the hard way that, sometimes, you'll have to make some sacrifices to have money to go out with your friends and have a good time.

One weekend in the life of a single girl costs hundreds — about $360, to be exact. But being with your single besties and having a magical New York night? That, my friends, is priceless.