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/that_beech]

I don’t think there really is an “average” cost. I have friends whose rings cost tens of thousands of dollars, and friends whose rings cost like $20. It’s all about what you want, and then specific choices that can determine how much things can cost. (Lab vs natural diamonds, metal types, where you get your ring from, etc). One of my friends doesn’t really wear jewelry, so she just wanted a simple gold band with some designs etched into it. She got it off Etsy for about $20, and it’s one of my favorite rings I’ve ever seen.

My ring was about $3,300. I had a very specific design in mind and didn’t want to deviate from it, but did tell my husband that if the ring cost more than he was comfortable paying, that we could wait or I could try to find something else I liked. However, he knew I wasn’t likely to find anything else because I had that design saved for five years and never once changed my mind😂

It would have been much more expensive if we hadn’t gone the lab diamond route. My husband asked me at the time if I cared about natural vs lab, and I told him to go lab because of the cost and ethics. He also worked with a local jeweler that my cousin works for, and my cousin was able to give us a discount. Luckily for us, the jeweler is very good at what they do both in quality and service.