Engagement ring spend tradition gone crazy?

My ring was £175. My wedding ring, on the other hand, will be between £1,200 and £1,700, but I'm buying my dress from the high street or a sample sale. I'd rather spend a fortune on a ring I'll wear everyday for the rest of my life than a dress I'll wear once. I understand a lot of people do it the other way round (couple of hundred on a wedding ring & a fortune on an engagement ring and dress), but that just isn't the way I want to do it. My wedding ring is going to be quite wide, where as my engagement ring is very dainty, but because my wedding ring is so stunning I'm going to end up wearing my engagement ring on my right hand, so it makes sense for it to be smaller.

That's what I thought....oh dear.

Ladies- this is a spam post.

Ladies- this is a spam post.

I chose mine three years ago and it was about £1000, which in hindsight is probably a lot more than I'd want him to spend on one now, even though he's on a lot more money now. It's funny how priorities change. However, I do love it.

The funny thing is that most people comment on my emerald ring that I wear on my right hand. He got me that for my 24th birthday at about a 5th of the price! It is not the amount of money - it's the purpose of the thing. And there are some truly beautiful, unique rings for smaller budgets.

Mine is OH's Gran's engagement ring. She died a couple of years before he proposed and I couldn't be prouder to wear it. It is also rather beautiful which is a bonus!

It is amazing how judgemental people can be about rings. I have quite simple tastes and when we bought our wedding rings I said I wanted something very plain. The sales assistant replied "yes, you can always upgrade it when you have a bit more money". Er... ok. Or not as I don't want it upgraded thanks! I was so put out that she thought we couldn't afford a 'better' ring that when she said "we will need a 10% deposit today", I replied "we'll pay in full". Lol.

I would not expect anything over £1000 (and would be uncomfortable to wear something that much) average that I know of among friends//family seems to be £200-£400

my little mock ring is only cheep, like £30

I was on an American website last week and they had an engagement ring thread and it was cringy, Ive never seen such tacky rings (and attitude) it was ALL about mines bigger, mine cost more, mine has more carats and they where mostly bloody awful

one girls ring had 50 diamond and stretched from one knuckle to the other and was 3 fingers wide... why? I just dont get why

another bragged her ring cost 'twice as much as a family car' and it was said in the complete im better than you attitude

and another said she would not say yes for anything under 8 carats and/or £10,000 (well she seems like a nice person)

oh, and dont forget the girl with 3 engagement rings, 2 wedding ring and an eternity ring (all diamond) and yes she wore all 6 on the one finger

just painfully ridiculous and impractical

I came on here the day after and looked at the ring thread and it was sooooo much nicer, no offense to anyone but us British have far classier more subtle taste lol

My fiancé only planned to spend £200 on my engagement ring, but then didn't specifify his budget when we chose my ring together - the one I chose was nearer £300, but that was about 2 weeks wages for him. Strangely, I chose a.ring almost identical to my mum's - an amethyst ring, which I keep getting told is unique

My Oh didn't have a clue what my ring would cost he had a ball park of about 250 from brief glances in shops but I fell in love with one at 450 that was half original price and I couldn't see one that excited me as much as this one so I ended up being spoilt to it. When we was picking wedding rings out I saw rings for like 7k massive knuckle duster engagement rings and that's what I would have been looking at using three months wages they was awful and I don't think I would feel safe. I love my ring that much I have a 20 quid mock engagement ring that I took on holiday or if I go swimming etc :-) a friend has a ring that cost less than 100 quid because that's what they could afford and it's absolutely beautiful it's the sentiment behind the ring rather than the sparkle!

I think price or size shouldn't come into it, if you like your ring then that's great. I find it odd that other people feel the need to comment how big or small something is, as if it demonstrates by what depth you are loved. I would never dream of commenting on anybody's engagement ring, i would have been equally as happy with a smaller ring and i think that it has nothing to do with the money spent on it.

I actually have a fairly large rock on my finger which is lovely but it gets quite a lot of comments from people which i actually find a bit embarrassing and would never have anticipated beforehand. I was in a meeting with a client last week when he stopped to comment on it, there were 3 other people in the meeting with me who then stopped to look too. I wasn't quite sure what to do. Everyone is very complimentary but then almost always go on to ask how much it cost, what my OH earns and make other comments like 'Small man syndrome, like when they have big cars or big egos' which i think is a bit mean. I wouldn't say on the bus or in a meeting 'god, what a small ring. he doesn't earn much does he??'

My OH is in the army and i have also had comments about it being a 'pity ring' because he is away so much. There i was assuming he saved his money to buy me the best he could because he thought i would appreciate the time and effort. Silly me.

The American's like to do everything bigger. I lived there over a decade ago and even back then the expectations from engagement rings was crazy. My friend was thinking about proposing and the rings he was pricing up could have bought you a cheap terraced house in the UK. Crazy stuff! But it's their way.

My wife comes from Eastern Europe and the tradition of having an engagement ring is relatively recent. So she had no expectations really when it came to how much it would cost. In fact I didn't tell her what the budget I had in mind was. I just let her look. She was on various websites looking at styles and called me over when she'd shortlisted a few. They were all pretty inexpensive and the last was about £200 more than the others she'd showed me. It was still about half the budget I had in mind so I said "Well if that's the one you really love then you should have it." Then I stupidly added "But I was expecting to have to spend more than that." Next thing you know the rings she was looking at had doubled in price lol ?

It's something she has to wear forever so personally I wanted her to have the one she LOVED as opposed to the one that made the most financial sense.

The American's like to do everything bigger. I lived there over a decade ago and even back then the expectations from engagement rings was crazy. My friend was thinking about proposing and the rings he was pricing up could have bought you a cheap terraced house in the UK. Crazy stuff! But it's their way.

My wife comes from Eastern Europe and the tradition of having an engagement ring is relatively recent. So she had no expectations really when it came to how much it would cost. In fact I didn't tell her what the budget I had in mind was. I just let her look. She was on various websites looking at styles and called me over when she'd shortlisted a few. They were all pretty inexpensive and the last was about £200 more than the others she'd showed me. It was still about half the budget I had in mind so I said "Well if that's the one you really love then you should have it." Then I stupidly added "But I was expecting to have to spend more than that." Next thing you know the rings she was looking at had doubled in price lol ?

It's something she has to wear forever so personally I wanted her to have the one she LOVED as opposed to the one that made the most financial sense.

On an American feminist website I use it's completely the opposite, all the comments are about how their rings aren't blood diamonds and cost nothing and were inherited or salvaged from a swamp or God knows what. My ring is vintage cos I love old things - I like to think about what the history of it might be and that maybe it was someone else'e engagement ring in the 50s or something (my wedding jacket, boots, bag and jewellery are all vintage for the same reason). I am conscious of unethical diamond mining but that wasn't my first priority. It cost much less than a month's salary, but that really isn't important.

I am the breadwinner in our house and FI is the unwaged domestic wing of the relationship. No way was I going to spend 3 month of my own salary on a ring! I think I spent just under half a month's gross on my engagement and wedding rings together.

My post on the 1st page made me laugh... I should've said no! ?

I would have done p!