How Much is Reasonable for an Engagement Ring?

[jtkz13]

I spent a couple hundred bucks for my first wife. I got lucky in that she hated diamonds and just wanted a band. So i got the nicest band money could buy lol.

I bought a $15k badass high end set for my last girlfriend, but it didnt work out and I never popped the question. I dont regret it one bit, and would do it again for the next girl. Its all about what you can afford and your priorities.

No one NEEDS 700hp when 300hp gets you arrested. No one NEDS a Fiji vacation when Florida is warm too. No one NEEDS a stupid expensive engagement ring, but sometimes its nice to go excessive. Plus usually they are insured for close to double what they cost, so the risk is pretty low.

 

[ford fanatic]

The answer you get form this question will likely be fairly related to the car the person owns. Example, if the person owns a mostly stock 86 fox then he will probably say a good bit less than the guy who owns a 2017 GT350R.
How much you spend on something like that really should depend on how much you can afford and feel comfortable with. If your young and making 2k a month then you might struggle to buy a ring that costs 1k. Where as if your established and have a career making 200K a year you can probably afford that GT350 and a 10K ring.
Just be sensible man.

P.S. I always felt that rule of thumb of spending 2-3 months salary was nonsense. Most people really can't afford to do that without going into debt. The people who can afford to, typically make a ton of cash and that's why you see 30-300k rings being purchased by the "Elite".

I have an 86' fox and I think I've spent more than anyone here has admitted to yet lol.

We were a little older when we got together, both have great paying jobs and houses already. We have traveled quite a bit in the few years before we got engaged. Nothing was sacrificed because of what I spent, I saved and paid cash. My wife is far from high maintenance, works hard, so I figured what the hell, why not buy her a nice ring.

It's funny that most here seem to have no problem about spending a ton of money on their cars, but not their women...

 

[kevinatfms]

10k for my wife's engagement ring. Another 2.5k for the wedding band. Went to Mervis Diamond Importers.

My carbon fiber ring was $150 and my tungsten ring was $540.

 

[matab14]

Paid 5k for Engagement Ring and another 2k for wedding band. It was more than I intended on spending but while I browsing together it was the one I knew she really really liked. She even told me not to spend that much but the surprise of going forward with that was all I needed. I should note though, I saved and paid cash for engagement ring and then did 0% for 1 year on wedding band.

 

[Torch10th]

You have to decide how much you can and are willing to spend. That's not really for anybody else to dictate to you.

I can only tell you what I did and my rationale for doing so. The first thing I looked at was if my wife would marry me even if I didn't have a ring at all. The ring doesn't make the marriage, so if I knew it was ring or nothing, then it was going to be nothing.

Once I realized that the ring wasn't the gateway, I brought her into the discussion about what she liked, how big etc. I took that information, made a budget for myself and went looking. I took her recommendations and ultimately purchased the ring that I liked best. I think guys can kind of forget that. Pick the ring you like and she'll like it in return.

Between the ring and the band, I spent about 8k. I could have spent more and I could have spent less, but that particular set spoke to me, so that's what I went with. I didn't personally use any of that, 1 month, 3 month, 12 week nonsense. I just knew about where I was comfortable spending on the low end to the high end. I've since upgraded her ring with an extra band and I've also added a necklace, earings and and a watch to her collection.

I get not wanting to spend your hard earned money on stuff like this, and you certainly don't have to. For me, I know my wife likes jewelry, so I have no problem spending some money on those items for her. In return she knows I like cars and car parts, so I don't get grief when I want to spend some money on me either.

 

[Drive XR7]

Happy wife = happy life. Hopefully your girl doesn't care or need a big shiny rock.

 

[earl lee]

My sister bf just gave her a 6k engagement ring.

 

[Shifty Powers]

Now where has everyone been going? I feel like going to some of the chain stores you see commercials for, is just odd. I dont know.

And doesn't taking your girl looking at rings, kind of give away any surprise that you might pop the question? Or are you guys doing this way in advance?

 

[DHG1078]

I got lucky, and my wife didn't need the largest rock, or the most diamonds you can fit on a ring. We bought her second engagement ring for somewhere around 2000, for the band and diamond. Its been a couple years. We had to replace the one I originally gave her with a platinum ring as she developed some skin allergies.

For the diamond selection we picked one that was "reasonably" priced, it was large enough it looked good on the band/her finger and looked good to the naked eye. Not the best quality diamond, but you would never know it by looking at it. It gets cleaned up at the retailer every 6 months for warranty inspections, and boy does it sparkle when its clean.

I wouldn't say there is a minimum you should spend, but you know what you can afford and what she likes.

 

[Torch10th]

Now where has everyone been going? I feel like going to some of the chain stores you see commercials for, is just odd. I dont know.

And doesn't taking your girl looking at rings, kind of give away any surprise that you might pop the question? Or are you guys doing this way in advance?

My wife and I shop almost exclusively with Kay. That happened simply because they had the ring that I ultimately purchased. After that we developed a good rapport with them and they've made it easy to upgrade and add to her collection.

On your initial purchase, I'd shop everywhere and buy from the place that has the ring you want. I think you'll find chain or not, they're usually pretty helpful and as you're buying the band as well as her getting your band, it just becomes easy to deal with a single company, whoever that may be.

If you want to make it an absolute surprise, you don't have to say anything. I simply asked my wife at one point what she liked as far as rings go. Sure she knew I was shopping at that point, but she didn't know any details other than that and she was still surprised when I popped the question.

 

[AustinSN]

I spent $1300 after tax and shipping, but that's because she wanted a lab grown diamond. One of her friends she works with has a lab grown diamond ring and every time she gets it cleaned, the jewelers compliment her on it.

The rock is pretty big, I can't remember the size but I think it's over 2.5ct. I showed my buddy and his fiancee when I bought it and both of their mouths dropped. Since then all his fiancee talks about is getting a bigger diamond lol. I guess that's the guy equivalent of being outrun at the track.

I think the breakdown was $900 for the band (platinum), $100 for a custom setup, $200 for the diamond and the last bit was shipping and tax.

 

[Blown 89]

This can't be true...

Maybe we don't put such a high importance on money as some people, but if we ever consider ending our marriage over money, then we should probably go ahead and do it.

I can only think of one or two friends that didn't get into knock down drag out fights over the cost of the wedding. She wants a fairy-tale and he wants to do something practical with the money.

When we got engaged I thought we would get all sorts of advice like "Don't go to bed angry" and whatnot and literally, and I'm not joking here, literally hundreds of hundreds of people all told us not to spend money on the wedding. Only one person gave us different advice. It sounds like a lot of people regret spending money on a few hours of entertainment.

The best wedding I've ever been to was a friend that spent just shy of $1,000 on his wedding. Keep in mind I used to own a video production company and I did 2-3 weddings a week for almost a decade so I've seen it all and this was the best wedding I've ever attended. There were multi-million dollar celebrity guests that were wearing suits worth more than the total cost of the wedding. People need to realize money doesn't equal happiness IMO.

 

[Blown 89]

Now where has everyone been going? I feel like going to some of the chain stores you see commercials for, is just odd. I dont know.

And doesn't taking your girl looking at rings, kind of give away any surprise that you might pop the question? Or are you guys doing this way in advance?

We bought from a friend that's involved in mining so we were in a very unique circumstance. Normally, you're going to find that everyone, and I mean everyone, has a guy when it comes to diamonds. Ignore them and just go to the chain stores. We found that they had the best prices.

Most people talk about marriage before hand so I don't think you're giving away too much of the element of surprise.

 

[Shifty Powers]

Cool. Thanks for the reply guys

 

[Stanger00]

I wanted to impress my wife and I bought a nearly flawless colorless 1 carat diamond. I didn't want to revisit the diamond size a few years down the road and I just bought the biggest and best cut I could afford at the time.

I spent a whole lot more than what's being reported here. The diamond alone cost a lot more than what some have spent on an entire ring and wedding band.

I bought from a local business over blue nile and other diamond online retailers.

Edit: Before the engagement a few months prior we went looking at engagement rings and she set up a profile of styles she liked and the store saved all the info for us. I went back a few months later and worked out a deal to purchase a ring I liked out of her choices and I picked the rock to put on top of it.

She's complimented on it all the time!


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[TheShadow]

Um, 65,000? Seems reasonable.

 

[DHG1078]

 

[DriftwoodSVT]

I think we spent around $3000. We'd bother preferred to put the money into a house at the time.

 

[Stanger00]

Haha 3 years salary


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[BJCobra99]

I spent $2,000 on my wifes ring, she wanted smaller since she is a nurse and apparently rings catch on everything. That was 11 years ago, and she still loves it. Next, we are talking about going to crater of diamonds state park in Arkansas. Find your own public diamonds. Never been to that state, now we have a reason to visit.