Cheap engagement ring? Would you be bothered?

[hacky]

This is pure curiosity as I've been thinking about this for a few weeks!

well i guess it depends if it’s all than can be afforded at the time or if someone is being mean. My engagement ring cost £250 and we split the cost because we were young and skint. could have a much more expensive one now but i’d not change it.

If they were skint it would be absolutely fine. I’d they earned 100k pa and spent £100 on a ring, then I’d feel a bit sad.

What's cheap? Haribo? Plastic?
I would imagine it depends on the budget of the buyer. But to place a lot of importance on that alone would to me make someone sound incredibly shallow.

Personally I can’t fathom letting someone else buy you jewellery you’re going to wear a lot. I don’t have an engagement ring, but if I did, I’d have been involved in buying it, so the cost would have also been in part my decision.

Plus it’s mildly irritating to see how few people appear to be aware that the ‘x month’s salary’ thing (originally one month) was a de Beers’ ad campaign aimed at trying to offload a glut of small diamonds after the Depression trying to link diamonds and engagements. Before WW2, diamonds seldom featured in engagement rings.

Short answer yes I would be bothered. I don't wear cheap jewellery.

I didn't get engaged / married until I was 33 so well past the 'We were skint students' stage. I had no desire to get married in my 20s at all.

So when I met the right man & the time came I def wanted a decent ring. That's just my situation though. I couldn't care less what anyone else buys or wears.

You get to spend the rest of your life with the love of your life. That is more important than the ring.

Someone once bought me a cubic zirconia ring as an engagement ring. The issue was that he pretended it was a diamond. I gave it back to him.

I’d rather have no ring than one which is essentially a lie.

When DH and I got engaged, he took me to buy a ring. The one I chose wasn’t expensive, but it was really pretty.

It depends. Mine weren’t hugely expensive and I wouldn’t change them - it was a pair of wedding and engagement rings.

What I’ve never understood is spending more on a dress you’ll wear for a few hours/a day than a ring you’ll hopefully wear for the rest of your life. I know a few people who done it.

We chose them together btw, we decided to get married then chose our rings together.

I hardly ever wear my engagement ring, surprisingly. I wear my wedding ring every day though

It totally depends on the context. I wouldn't be impressed with 'I just got you this random ring because it was the cheapest I could find and hopefully that's you sorted then'.

My ring is not expensive. At the time, it cost maybe £800. But it has sentimental value and it's what I wanted. Dh and I bought the stone when we were travelling and carried it around with us on our travels (it's not a diamond). And then went to a jeweller who designed a setting for it. It's exactly what I wanted, and I love it and get lots of compliments on it, but it's not expensive or flash.

Honestly having supported my friends and sisters through some horrific relationship scenarios the cost of the ring is completely irrelevant. DH spent £750 on my engagement ring, he was earning 26k pa then back in 1997. Those rings cost almost 3k to my utter shock, I just peeked at the jewellers website. I know that junior staff where he works start on a salary of around 36k as I just asked him.

Yes because I love jewellery
I always buy secondhand though - my current ring is to symbolize a commitment though as have no intention of ever getting re married

I’m allergic to gold so had a titanium ring made with a diamond inset. Not everyone’s choice, but I love it.

Husband was a student so it was less than £200. It will always be the ring he proposed with so when he suggested getting another when he had more money I said no. Can’t wear rings with stones anyway at work (nurse) so I never remember to put it on!

I don't really wear jewellery so it's not really something I've had to think about, that said I think sometimes I'd wear a wedding ring (tiny gold band)

I've inherited my mams engagement ring, beautiful as it is I'd never wear it & also I had a massively ostentatious engagement ring before , I never wore it & we didn't make it up the aisle

I don’t think the ring matters. I don’t think any of that stuff matters. About 80% of my friend’s parents are divorced, loads of the school parents are divorced… from what I know, most has lovely engagement rings.

My parents are heading for 40 years of marriage, and never had an engagement ring. They were together as students, my dad got a job abroad and had to go. Mum couldn’t go with due to finishing her studies. Off he went, they lasted about 8 months and just couldn’t do it apart anymore. He bought his wedding ring and suit out there, she bought her wedding dress and ring out here, flew out, he collected her from the airport and they went to the court house. No friends, no family, straight from the place to the court to be married. And they’re the happiest couple I know. And no engagement ring.

I haven’t found that person yet, but if I do, I certainly don’t give a shit about the ring.

We did the ring buying the 'wrong way around '... Got engaged at uni, proverbial skint students, so he just got me a simple wedding band instead of a traditional engagement ring.

Some years later, married but still skint (children, money pit house etc) he bought me a lovely half eternity ring from......... Argos.

Have been together nearly 50 years. Still married.

My engagement ring was expensive, I've already said when we choose wedding rings I'm happy with a lab diamond wedding band, I don't want to be walking round with any more £ on my hand, it already makes me nervous about losing it.

We didn't have any money when we got engaged and my ring was cheap although it doesn't look it to the untrained eye. Its still one of my favourite pieces of jewellery and I wear it every day with pride. If we had been rolling in it and I had received this ring I might have felt differently!

I have a cheap engagement ring as DH and I got engaged when we were 24 and married at 26 (now 23 years in). It is a very pretty ring but it was more important to be able to buy a flat and have an amazing party at our wedding.

I don't wear it very often any more as DH commissioned an eternity ring for me as a 20th anniversary gift so I worked with the jeweller to come up with a really special design which works with both my wedding ring and engagement ring so i usually wear that.

I don’t know what like cost. He chose it, he surprised me, I’ve always loved it. The value was never in the money spent for me though. I appreciate others may feel differently.

I old and jaded, but I really don't understand why engagement rings are still a thing.

A piece of jewellery you're going to wear forever and you let someone else choose it. Whether you like it or not, it's a symbol of "ownership". There's a reason male engagement rings have never taken off. And the whole cost thing that comes entirely from an advertising campaign. I'd love to see some analysis of cost of engagement ring v success of the marriage.

So many problems with the whole thing.

But, no I wouldn't have a problem with a cheap ring if it came from a recognition that there are so many more important ways to demonstrate love and to do with the money. Obviously general tightness is not endearing

I suppose it exposes your own character.

If you're looking at it like you're about to embark on a lifelong journey and whatever is spent on the ring isn't spent on a house/wedding/honeymoon/life...

Could be that you believe the hype around diamonds and think what he spends equals what he sees you're worth (materialistic)

We used a haribo ring originally (didn't wear it, too sticky!), Then I searched for the ring I wanted to wear for the rest of my life and we paid for it as a couple. Then we dod the official engagement with the ring and kept the haribo as a keepsake. As it turns out, I'm not materialistic, I'd rather us have the money for our life together vs a ring that won't hold its worth and messonite diamonds don't cost that much! win win, Instead we saved up, went on a month long honeymoon and both have memories to last a lifetime and a ring that looks the part but didnt cost the earth.

Depends what you mean by 'cheap', really.

I'd want a ring I really loved and which was wearable for every day. Looking online I can see plenty of rings from high street chains that are around the £300 mark that look absolutely fine to me and I'd be more than happy to wear one of them. Equally, I don't wear yellow gold and I know plenty of people who wouldn't have £300 sitting around spare to spend on a piece of jewellery, so if my partner was skint and could only manage a £50 silver ring with a cubic zirconia in, that would be fine provided I liked it.

If I was marrying a multimillionaire, I'd assume they'd spend a bit more. But I don't like big, blingy rings at all. Looking online now, most of the ones I actually like are between £300 and £2,500. So a £10K rock would be absolutely wasted on me!

Exactily.