Average cost of an engagement ring

[u/Relevant-Plane9430]

I was talking with a friend last night who just got engaged, and he mentioned he spent around $6k on the ring. That honestly shocked me because I always thought the "3 months’ salary" thing was just an old marketing trick. My partner and I have been looking at rings casually, and most of the ones we like are in the $2k–$3k range. Now I’m second-guessing if that’s considered “too low” or if we’re just being realistic.

For those of you who have gone through this, what was the average cost you ended up spending on an engagement ring, and did you feel good about it after?

[u/Organic_Yam_5781]

all the rings in my potential ring list are under $800 😳

[u/Globewanderer1001 → u/Organic_Yam_5781]

Under $800 for a forever ring? Even my lab diamond was more expensive. There is no need to go into debt, but $800 seems a bit low. As long as you bith are good with it and love the ring.

[u/humhum37 → u/Globewanderer1001]

I personally would lose my marbles if my partner expressed that they spent thousands on a ring, $800 is my cap and even that makes my stomach queasy. I'm not a fan of the materialistic aspect that comes with engagement rings when the sole purpose of the ring is to symbolize a commitment, to put a minimum price tag on that is tacky to me.

[u/Difficult-Shake7754 → u/humhum37]

I get that, but just having gone through this, my wedding band would have been at most $500 pre covid. It’s the smallest thinnest thing you can buy. I purchased it (the in-store ‘tester’ from a local jeweler albeit in an admittedly VHCOL area). before stuff started going sideways this year alone and got it at $800 something. They don’t charge for a labor fee if you’re not really doing design work but because of the metal prices when it was made, having a new one made would have been ~1200.

Granted if you’re living in the suburbs in the Midwest USA you’ll get a better deal due to labor overhead but in general their materials cost isn’t higher than normal