The rules for who pays on a date may not be concrete, there are a few resources to help ease the confusion. Fortunately, whether you are 14 years old and on your very first date or 50 years old and on your 200th first date, the rules are virtually the same.

Online dating site Match.com gives advice on how to “lay down ground rules” for who pays.

iVillage offers a breakdown by date number of how paying should work (i.e. most first dates, the man wants to pay).

CNN Money offers practical advice about who pays and even helps clarify what happens in “stickier” situations (i.e. the woman makes more money than the man).

On MSN dating and personals, Dr. Debbie Magids, Ph.D. gives advice on what to infer about your date because of his/her paying behavior.

For a theory about why men were ever expected to pay in the first place, here's a CBS interview with an anthropologist providing animal behavior perspectives.

— J. Liebenthal