Woman here. He used my great-grandmother’s ring. It’s perfect.
My husband spent a little under a month’s take-home on my engagement ring. A sapphire with two smaller diamonds on either side, and two tinier diamonds on the sides of those, in a platinum band. It’s truly beautiful and I love it.
Our wedding bands have no stones at all. They are plain white gold–his 4mm wide, mine 2mm. A couple hundred bucks for both including the lifetime warranty.
My husband did not buy me a ring; I didn’t need one. We were poor college students and it’s not like we had money anyway. Technically, if he had bought one, since I had the job he would’ve been using my own money to buy me a ring. I always find that a little amusing.
Also - it doesn’t have to be diamond. My mother’s engagement ring was a star sapphire with two tiny accent diamonds and she loves it.
Way back when I was young and stupid, I was badgered into buying an engagement ring that cost $1,000. I was in the military and netting about $100/month. :smack: I did end up getting three engagements out of that stupid purchase, none of which, including the resulting marriage from the third one, worked out.
My present wife is wearing an opal ring that I bought her. It’s her birth stone and she loves it. A few hundred at most.
FWIW: diamonds are a lousy investment.
IIRC I spent about two month’s salary, but I was dirt poor at the time.
For our twentyfifth anniversary, I got her a much nicer ring. Also costing about two month’s salary, but I am no longer dirt poor. Not intentional, it just worked out that way. After I bought her the anniversary ring, I caught her in the bathroom practicing casual gestures in the mirror to show it off.
Would have been cheap at triple.
Regards,
Shodan
I spent one month’s salary at the time, $300.
three fiddy… dollars not hundreds of dollars 
About 3 month’s pre-tax income, which at the time was probably closer to 2 month’s take home.
She’s probably pawned it by now to cover her endless credit card bills I imagine.
We got engaged as poor college students and I spent about $1000 on the ring. The whole month thing didn’t really factor into the decision. Several years later we went to a jewelry show together and got a nice wrap for it.
I actually got lucky in that aspect.
SWMBO’s first husband had gotten her a big-ass diamond engagement ring. After the divorce, she had it reset in a different mounting and continued to wear it on her left hand. It kept guys from making passes at her. After she and I started going together, others assumed that I had given her the ring and I was crass enough to not correct them. It is a very expensive diamond.
When we got married last April, we had a custom ring designed to pair with her “engagement” ring. I paid just under a grand for that.
A few hundred dollars when I bought it (1993), over $3k for the replacement (this past Valentine’s Day.)
My husband spent nothing on an engagement ring, I’ve never had one. We spent probably $500? on both wedding rings (simple rose gold bands, no adornments). That was in 1991. We’d been together as a couple for 11 yrs at that point, and engagement ring seemed silly somehow.
If I remember right it was about 3400 for the stone and 1000 for the band so about $4400. On about 75k/year salary. (wish i was making that now!)
I was looking more for stone quality and how the design looked than total cost, but I guess it ended up being about less than a month of pre-tax salary.
$4500 - About $1500 more than I budgeted for but when I saw it I knew it was one she would love.
My husband and I went to the ethnic (Turkish) jewellery store and we picked out a ring for me. He doesn’t like to wear jewellery. My ring was a slender yellow/white gold combo with two small zirkonia stones. It cost 60 bucks.
$100 back in 1976. I was a pretty broke Sergeant (E-4) in the US Air Force at the time that’s all I could afford. If must have worked as we are still married 36 years later.
Reminds me of when someone asked Johnny Carson what was the most expensive thing he ever bought. Answer: $100 wedding ring. Think about it…
About $700 in 2006, which was like a week’s take home for me back then. She picked out the ring online and I purchased it semi-secretly. She still loves it and we made much better use of the unspent thousands of dollars.
I offered my wife the choice between an engagement ring (which would have cost at least 2 months worth of my 1964 salary) and two months on a European vacation. Guess which she chose. Although she often reminds me, nearly 50 years, that I never bought her a diamond ring. The plain (white gold) wedding bands cost about $35 each and we still wear them.
I proposed, and he got an engagement bj ( I was already on my knees, so why not kill two birds with one stone?). Market value about half a day of work at my salary then. We bought matching wedding bands together.
He’s never asked for a diamond, by the way. I guess I’m just that good.
I think the ring I bought cost about two weeks pay at the time.