published on June 25, 2024 in blog

I'm a Sugar Baby Who Gets Paid $500 Per Date Here's What It's Like

A freelance writer in her 30s shared her experiences as a "sugar baby."
This story was first published in 2019; the writer chose to stay anonymous to protect her identity.
She discussed everything from the gifts she's received to how she spots a scammer online.

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Note: The author is a freelance writer in her 30s whose identity was verified by Insider. While some people consider sugar relationships a form of sex work, it's a label rejected by sugar dating sites and some members themselves. This story was originally published in 2019 as part of a series on the financial side of relationships; you can read other entries in the series here.

Six months ago, I decided to become a sugar baby.

My reasoning was simple. I'd grown frustrated with dating men in my city — maybe I'd just had one too many Tinder dates end in mediocre conversation. My day job offers me control over my schedule, since I don't work a traditional nine-to-five. I wanted to supplement my income and have some fun doing it, so I decided to try finding a sugar daddy.

For the uninitiated, "sugaring" is a form of dating in which one partner financially supports the other, often in the form of cash or gifts. As a woman in a major city with an appreciation for societal deviance, I figured the lifestyle might suit me well.

Whether it was exhaustion of millennial swiping, or maybe the thrill of experiencing life outside my usual means, I found myself creating a profile on the primary website for sugaring connections, SeekingArrangement.

In the half-year since then, I've met some highly interesting people — not to mention I've received thousands of dollars in cash, trips across the country, access to five-star hotels and restaurants, and expensive gifts like shoes and clothing I never could have ordinarily afforded.

Read on for a firsthand look at what it's really like to be a sugar baby.

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