I proposed on the date of my parents’ wedding anniversary using my mother’s engagement ring. It wasn’t free, as the “bottom” of the ring had worn very thin and needed some strengthening, but it certainly didn’t cost what a comparable new ring would have.
My annual salary is higher than your max range. I bought my now wife a 3.2ct total weight engagement ring (center stone 1.25ct) for just under what would be one months pre-tax salary. I only got that good of a deal due to buying from one of my wife’s friends who is a diamond broker. Appraisal value is significantly higher than what I paid.
Couple thou, 24 years ago. The internet tells me that’s $3600-ish 2013 dollars.
My first wife, !961…No ring
2nd wife, 1973…Asked her to choose between a ring or an air/con, she chose air/con
3rd wife 1982…$350.00, she selected the one she wanted.
About half a month’s salary. But, only because I lucked out and she wanted a black sapphire instead of a diamond.
$220, which was (at the time) 10% of a month of take-home pay.
Any more of that just seemed absurd to both of us.
This. Look for a stone that looks nice, and would suit her hand. Don’t worry about size, either. You can get big, but poorly cut diamonds. I would go for pretty over big any day.
I think measuring by salary is silly. It’s the worst kind of conspicuous consumption. That said, I’m not the one who will be wearing it, so my fiance and I talked about how much she wanted to spend. She said “it should be enough that you feel it, but not so much that it is a major financial event”. She named a number, I said sure. We ended up spending about 25% more than that, but still considerably less than any kind of salary guidelines would dictate.
We got a sapphire, since neither of us care for the geopolitical or economic cartel implications of diamonds. It looks fantastic.
Very little, because I had very little at the time. I don’t remember the exact amount, but it had to have been under $200. The wife loved it then and loves it now, some 30+ years later. She won’t even entertain the thought of a “better” ring. It really is the thought behind it, not the quality or cost of the ring, that counts.
True story - I have a buddy who was in a serious relationship whith a girl who told him she would not agree to marry him until he gave her a 5 karat (or some crazy size) diamond engagement ring. I thought “Good thing you’ll never be able to afford that, 'cause you don’t want to marry her”. I was right on both counts.
My first wife didn’t want a diamond ring. I think I paid about $300.
I paid for my current wife’s ring out of my divorce settlement. Probably about 1 1/2 month’s salary. My wife still wants to send a thank-you card to the ex.
One month’s salary.
Or, as I like to think of it, 4x what the legal fees for the divorce were.
The entire credit limit of a credit card.
I don’t remember how much, it was in the mid-90s. The thread does remind me of this old saying:
First, comes the engagement ring,
Then, comes the wedding ring,
And then comes the suffer-ring. 
Same here. My grandfather gave it to my grandmother. My father gave it to my mother and I gave it to my wife-to-be. Of course, she has lost it since then, but so it goes…
I paid $3,500, equal to about one and three quarters of a month’s salary.