‘The Penny Method’ is the new sinister dating trend taking over young people

When it comes to dating nowadays, nothing seems simple at all. From the apps to all kinds of trends there’s so much to consider.

There’s ‘masterdating’ and ‘dexting’ and then unhealthy habits of ‘phubbing’ or just simply getting ‘fizzled’. Yeah, sounds like a whole made up thing, right?

Well, to add to this list of dating trends is the pretty sinister ‘Penny Method’ that’s taking over young people.

A woman in Toronto claims she was told about this being used by straight men when they’re dating women.

Calling it ‘boymath’, TikTok user ‘erikatham’ says one of her guy friends told her about ‘The Penny Method’.

She said her friend explained it’s similar to love-bombing: “Imagine a girl is a piggy bank. In order to get her interested, obviously at first you have to be feeding her hundred dollar bills.

“But putting in hundred-dollar bills is a lot of work and you don’t always want to be doing that.

“So eventually you reduce it to 90. Now she’s going to feel the decrease in effort, but it’s only 10 percent so if she tries to bring it up, she’s gonna sound crazy at this point.”

Erika said the whole thing then gets ‘sick’ as her friend told her the next step is to ‘bump it back up to 95’.

“Instead of feeling like she lost five – which is how she would feel if you went directly from 100 to 95 – suddenly she feels like she’s gained five.

“But you are still putting in five percent less effort. Basically, you just keep repeating this cycle and weening her off your effort until you get to the point where you’re giving her pennies and suddenly she’s excited to receive a nickle.”

The woman said the whole thing makes her ‘so afraid’ as she warned ladies to ‘be safe out there’.

Users commented on the viral video to call the ‘Penny Method’ ‘crazy’ as they said it’s ‘just psychotic to know and do’.

Another corrected it’s not ‘boy math’ but instead ‘psychopath math’.

One questioned: “What ever happened to genuinely liking someone and wanting to spend time with them without games or lies?”

But others joked that people ‘def don’t think this much’ as one man wrote: “It’s cute that y’all think we think.”

And some users revealed it’s not just straight men using it, as one wrote: “I’m a victim of the penny method but it was a girl that did it.”

Featured Image Credit: Getty stock images

Topics: Sex and Relationships, Money, Viral, TikTok

Jess Battison

Jess is an Entertainment Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include keeping up with the Twitter girlies, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021 and has previously worked at MyLondon.

@jessbattison_