Hehehe, It's cute that people equate the ring price with what the woman is "worth." what it comes down to is our money is the same as soon as we get married anyway, and if it's something that will last generations, then the ring itself is worth it. If it sparkles more than a crappier diamond, if the metal is higher quality, if it's the design you both like, then yes, in fact, it is worth it. There is a difference between a $1000 diamond and a $7000 diamond. it's not just size, either. Look around.

I do not regret buying 2 amazing rings for my wife for $12K. At all.

Whats so bad about using a months salary to buy a ring? 

KN - how much did YOU spend proposing?

The price doesn't matter to GUYS, but with my GF - she cared a bit.

I'm not saying you need an insane rock of a ring to be married. After a certain point, it gets stupid and selfish - money on a small diamond is kinda stupid at points if you overdo it.

However, to women, they feel (atleast mine does), if you spend a bit of money on a ring, it shows where your prorities are - most of us will drop $1k on a good HDTV, but far less on a good woman. It shouldn't work that way.

First of all, Congrats.

Second of all, that's about what I spent. Of course, I bought the ring my sister had leftover from a broken engagement at its value, then got a higher trade-in value toward my ring which was on sale.

Is that Bonus x2?

Mike from Morgantown

(Generally happily married since 1999, though my wife still doesn't understand most of my gameplaying -- of course, she will play the Wii and my five year old is starting to play too much).

I really hope you bought it from blue nile. Diamonds there cost about 60% as much as most diamond stores for comperable cut/clarity/color and size. Don't let diamond store salesmen or commercials fool you: the same places rate *all* diamonds. It doesn't matter where you buy them, except for the fact that diamond stores have a ~100% markup on their product instead of a simiarly small markup for places like blue nile.

Back when I got engaged, I got a ring on blue nile for about $3500 that was appraised for about $6000. Diamond salesmen will tell you that you should spend 2-3 months of salary on a diamond. That's rubbish. I'm sure as hell not even spending one full month of salary on something that you simply put on a finger. Don't borrow money for a diamond. If she loves you she isn't going to expect you to take a loan.

Diamond salesmen will make you (and your prospective fiancee) feel like your love is defined by the amount of money you spend on a ring.  Of course they do -- their profit margin on diamonds is absolutely huge.  A good salesman can get someone to buy something much more expensive than they need.

 I bought my wife's ring from a TRUE wholesaler.  I picked out a diamond and came up with a custom band that I borrowed from a couple of designs.  They put the ring together for me and I think it was a .58 carat if I remember correctly.  D Color, V.V.S.1, 60/60 stone.  It was set in a "channel mount" platinum band.  I don't remember exactly but it was about $1,850 or something like that.  Sure, I wanted bigger, but that was a very, very high quality stone for the price.   The interesting thing about this particular company is that they offer 100% of your money back in trade toward something else.  As I made more money, my wife asked if she could get something a little bigger.  She now has something that is right a 1 carat and again is an exceptional stone.  It was set in a mount that tiffany sells for about 2 grand (diamonds on the side) but he ordered it from a contractor that does work for tiffany and we got it with equal quality tiny stones.  If I remember correctly, it was just under $6 grand (minus the 100% trade on first stone mean just over 4 grand or so for the upgrade).

I'm not hurting for money and I can tell you that 6 grand is the end of the road.  There won't be a bigger stone...

To more directly answer your question, I would consider getting some kind of matching pair of rings for an engagement.  Once the "yes" arrives, pick out the ring together... She'll be in the game and a lot more aware of the debt she is taking on for the sake of the ring.  Strangely enough, I suspect this just might inject a dose of sensibility in buying jewelry...

It is a personal thing and "how much to spend" is a difficult question to answer but I do know that if you have to buy it on credit, you should be buying it... 

i got it from blue nile, and yes it is a GREAT deal. I went into Kay to have them set it and I was looking a band that I wanted to set it on.... a diamond w/ shank(my girl wants no sidestones) that was .1 smaller than the one I bought was 600 dollars more. It was only F color(i got D) and was only a good cut...

although I was VERY happy with the price kay charged me for the band and labor. it was only 215 dollars for a 14k w gold band with double prongs and cathedral taper, labor included.