So anyone who gets married must be rich enough to drop thousands on a ring and more on a wedding without breaking a sweat? Oh to live in your delusional fantasy world.

So poor people shouldn't get married? Nor people who don't want to have a payment plan for an engagement ring? Honestly, getting married and combining households (one mortgage instead of two, etc.) often makes it much easier to afford the better things in life. Also, a lot of people don't have the burden of too much paycheck to deal with when they make the decision to get married. It's got more to do with love than money, I say.

Must be nice to be rich enough NOT to have to save up for a ring...

First of all, you don't know how much the damned ring costs, OR the damage to the car, so you have no room to talk. Second, who says how expensive a ring has to be? You're a ******* douchebag for implying that you have to dump a shit ton of money on a ring. It's the thought that counts, that you're presenting a symbol of love to whom you wish to live your life with. Money is no object. If you think that there is a money "minimum" on a ring, you don't deserve a good lover. Sorry. I'd hate to see someone put up with someone like you.

It`s suggested that one has what is equivalent to 6-10 weeks pay to spend on the ring. If you earn $1000.week^-1, then you should be looking at the $6000-1000 range. If you're poor you shouldn't be buying a ******* ring. Just slip a ******* onion ring on her finger and have a shotgun wedding in Las Vagas or Atlantic City.

what the hell? "Saving up" means you specifically put money away and don't spend it. Most sensible people do that, even rich people. Just because you've saved for something specific doesn't mean you don't have any other money. You also have no idea what kind of job he has and what his income is. Weddings and engagement rings are large expenses that generally have to be paid at once or in installments. Most people don't just have fifteen grand sitting in their bank account. It's something they accumulate over time and therefore save for. My friend and her boyfriend (now husband) worked full-on weeks for months to pay for their wedding. Does that mean they shouldn't be settling down? No, because they'd been living together for like a year beforehand anyway. Living costs come a bit at a time; rent is fortnightly/weekly; groceries are generally weekly; bills monthly; etc. Since your income is generally fortnightly you can pay off those things as they come. A wedding is one huge cost ALL AT ONCE.

novangaliss - an educated guess has me guessing my engagement ring was around the $2500 mark. My husband earns approx $1400/fortnight. There's no way in the world I would have wanted him to spend more than a month's wage on the ring. It was a decent ring and one I practically chose myself (not quite; I told him all the aspects I liked and he chose the ring with that in mind, it was exactly what I wanted.) In fact, with the one I tried on in the jeweller, I said I wanted a smaller diamond because I have little fingers and I thought a bigger diamond looked gaudy and ostentatious. My husband wasn't cheap, he bought what I wanted at a reasonable cost, and we could afford to get married.

Not to mention the "you should spend 2 months wages on an engagement ring" is a fabrication by the diamond industry. It all started back around the 1920s when diamond sales declined due to the depression and then the war. It wasn't even a solid tradition to have an engagement ring until De Beers started advertising the idea ("A Diamond is Forever"). It is commonly known as the most successful marketing campaign ever. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beers#Marketing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engagement_ring#Purchase

That is so incredibly antiquated. Nobody goes by that anymore.

what the hell? collision damage can easily cost several thousand dollars. A decent ring can easily be less than $2000, even less than $1000.

My engagement ring from my ex was worth about 8k...that was for a 1 carat well cut diamond in a VERY simple band. Even simple can be expensive. Usually they say you should spend about 2 months salary. I know my ex and my brother both spent more than that.

Why would he lose the girl? She's going to dump him if he doesn't buy the ring now? ...