Let’s face it – we’re all cutting costs wherever we can. We’re cutting back our cellular phone plans, our dinners out, and even our online dating memberships.

But is this any way to find love in the digital age? No.

The good news is that there are plenty of online dating sites which don’t make you pay – and yes, they’re good sites too. With these sites, you can stay in the single mix, meeting fun and exciting people who want to learn more about you too.

And since everyone’s in the financial mess together, you already have something to talk about.

Try going to sites like:

PlentyofFish.com
Metrodate.com
OKCupid.com

And these are just the tip of the dating iceberg – there are plenty of others for different sexualities, fetishes, and more.

You don’t have to pay to date, after all. In this time of cutting back and making sure that you’re spending as little as possible, you don’t have to cut out love or dating.

All you need to do is to cut out the high priced dating sites that don’t really offer you anything more than the free sites. Free sites might have more advertisements, but they also allow you to mingle on the cheap – and sometimes, that’s really all you want and all you can afford.

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When you’re browsing through love profiles online, you might be blinded by the love. You might find that all of your potential love interests seem to be into you, so you’re willing to do anything – even catch and pass on a dangerous love bug.

A computer virus.

Just like other more intimate moments, you need to make sure you’re protecting yourself and others from viruses that plague the online dating world. Even if you’re certain your computer is clean, another person’s computer may not.

And not everyone is exactly what they seem to be.

First of all, never, ever click on any links in emails from others you don’t really know. These can be routes into your computer for phishing attacks and hackers. Yes, this means you even need to avoid those cute-sy e-cards that everyone is sending. They can be virus-toting time bombs.

It’s also a good idea to avoid giving out your personal information to anyone – especially password information. While this should be common sense, you need to realize that hackers know how vulnerable you might be as a struggling single.

But you need to make sure they don’t get what they want – your money and your data.

To further protect yourself, make sure your email address for your online dating account isn’t your ‘real’ email address. Sign up for a free account with Hotmail, for example, to keep your life and your dating separate. This will only hinder cyber attacks more.

You can be safe and clean from this modern love bug. And don’t say we didn’t warn you!

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Right now, you might be feeing the pinch of the economy’s woes. Whether your 401K is shaky or your job is looking unsure, we’ve all been affected in some way by the economy.

Well, everyone but the online dating market.

It seems that even when the money situation is tough, the search for love is something our budgets will still allow. And this makes sense. We want to forget our woes and find someone with whom we can commiserate.

We want to have good times and make good memories – and online dating allows us to do so. True, the cost of online dating is quite low, so it does make it easier to leave this added expense in our monthly costs, but the satisfaction that comes along with a good date is priceless.

So, does this mean if you’re not already online that you should add this cost to your budget? Perhaps. Or you can look for free online dating services like Facebook, MySpace or Mingle2. Better still, there are others out there which have recently become free, such as Metrodate.

Love doesn’t have to cost a thing, after all.

The continued importance of online dating in the plunging economy proves one thing about the human condition – we still know that love is what really matters. No matter what might be happening in the world around us.

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