This is so true... I bought my wife what I could afford at the time and simply made a promise to get her a chunky rock for our 5 year. Most marriages dont make it past the first year because of finances so you never want to start yourself off in the hole. Ask her if she would rather live in an apartment and have a big rock or own a home with you and be financially stable...Guilt gets em everytime!!!

 

I just went through this myself. I think you need to take a lot of things into consideration: (1) your financial situation (2) how soon you all be getting married and if you will have to pay for the wedding yourself (3) how important is it to you and your GF to have a nice ring. For me, I decided I could afford to go into the hole for about 15K. This is about 5Kmore than I thought I wanted to spend, BUT you can cut corners here and there and make it work. Also, you should know that any women that says the ring doesn't matter...is lying their *** off :lol: In truth, it does matter to a degree..its a symbol of your love and committment and, for me, that was worth sacraficing things that I had wanted and saved for i.e. flatscreen, home theater system, supercharger, etc. In the end, when you see the look on their face, its worth it. Also, 50% of marriages do fail, but I think money is only a small part...lack of communication is probably the biggest factor (but that is another topic). Here are my tips....
(1) educate yourself on diamonds i.e. color, cut and clarity. Learn how to look for inclusions, so you can spot a crappy diamond i.e. big but has an inlcusion tap dead center vs. an inclusion on the side (which can be hidden by a prong).
(2) DO NOT GO TO A BIG RETAILER! they will screw you 7 ways to Sunday. Talk to other people and find out who they went to.
(3) Don't just look at carat, look at diameter of the stone (the cut). A 1.8 carat stone with a good cut, can look as big as a 2.1 and cost much less.
(4) DO NOT BUY ONLINE! you want to see the stone in person and see how the light reflects off of it...a function of cut and color. This really can't be captured in a picture. The diamond I purchased was about 2K less another, but it was much more radiant, due to cut, calrity and color.
(5) don't get fooled into thinking you need a "colorless" diamond i.e. "D-F" Only jewelers, and few at that, can tell the difference between an F and G and the price difference is substantial.
In the end, I purchased a 2.05carat, color= G, , round center stone/ Briilliant, SI2 clarity [slight inclusions...mine are on the side and totally hidden) and two .5 carat stones on each side, set in white gold (platinum is over rated.... dipples over time).
If you'd like, I can hook you up with several jewelers. Good luck