I like a good bargain as much as the next girl you might date

“Smart SWF looking for a good bargain. Are you the one?” Interested? According to ING Direct and eHarmony, you might be.

When ING Direct Bank asked 1000 people what they’d think of a blind date described as frugal, only “3.7 percent answered “sexy,” while 15 percent picked “boring” and 27 percent chose “stingy.””

Back when we wrote Your Money or Your Life we tried valiantly to redefine frugal as cool. A “high joy to stuff ratio.” Even though frugality is a non-starter in the dating scene, ING discovered that “smart” is attractive. The NY Times article on the subject goes on to say “EHarmony also crunched the numbers on 30 million matches it made in July and found that both men and women were 25 percent more likely to have a potential mate reach out to them if they identified themselves as a saver rather than a spender.” Their psychologist also suggests that “likes a good bargain” is, if not sexy, attractive. ”

Robert Epstein, a psychologist who has studied online dating, said he struggled with this during the seven years it took to produce a beta version of the relationship compatibility test now online at arewegoodtogether.com. He suggests that people who feel strongly about good money habits talk about how they love a great bargain.”