Grim.

Bad dates are a bit shit, aren't they? You spend all that time and effort getting ready, travelling to your destination, and trying to engage in some riveting conversation only to find out that the person you're going on a date with is actually the worst and you want to leave immediately. A familiar feeling, and yet, one that we continue to experience day in and day out until the very end of time. Another thing that makes bad dates a bit shit is the amount of money that you end up spending. Sure, who'd mind dropping a few euros if you actually meet someone class who does look like their Tinder pictures? Nobody, that's who. But when the date is bad, the loss of cash is yet another blow to the grimness of the situation. Lucky for you then, we're about to make it that much grimmer by letting you know exactly how much money we're all going to be wasting on bad dates this year. Turns out, it's a lot. Research conducted by dating website eHarmony suggests that people are going to be dropping a considerable €133 on bad dates in 2018. That's a lot of money, lads. The site worked out that the average bad date usually lasts about an hour, which to us seems a bit inaccurate, but sure look okay, we'll just go with it. Apparently, the average good date last about three hours too. To be honest, with stats like these we're slightly less inclined to believe this study at all because a typical good date for us could last anywhere between five and 47 hours but the numbers don't lie, we guess. eHarmony's data may be British specific, but we can probably go ahead and assume that the numbers would be pretty similar here in Ireland. Or, a lot higher, to be honest. The website also discovered the average amount of time we're going to be wasting on bad dates in 2018 - 23 hours. That's almost a whole day of actively being unhappy with someone you hate. Less of this in 2018, please. We deserve better.