I received an email from an iMod reader asking this very question. The email went on to say that some people say it’s 6 x gross monthly salary, but is someone who earns, say, R50,000 a month meant to spend R300,000 odd on a ring?
It’s definitely an interesting question, one which every man who’s thinking of proposing has probably asked someone about or researched. It was just over a year ago when all these questions hit my mind, what do I spend, what is clarity, what is cut, what is carat?
The truth is that I don’t have the answer, but my opinion about this isn’t so much about how much you spend, because it’s an emotional thing, it’s about the love. That isn’t to say that a lucky packet will suffice, women love their diamonds, ya know ;)
When I bought Fe’s ring, it was expensive, but it wasn’t 6 times what I mean over 6 months, that’s for sure. And, the fact that I didn’t put 6 months of salary into it didn’t stop her from falling in love with it and having every single friend going, “oh wow”. I boiled it down to what I could afford, but I also worked on the design, so it was up to the jeweller to quote me on achieving what I wanted. For those who are interested, here’s Fe’s ring:

I did some further research online to see what other’s opinions were and one that popped up numerous times was that of spending 2 months of salary on the ring and that definitely made more sense to me. However, this is still a great deal of money to spend and would take a lot of time to save up for.
So there are many opinions and my opinion is to make it about the coming together of two people and not about the ring. Yes, spoil your lady, but if she loves you and understands you, she’ll understand what you can afford and will work with you – think about it ;)
So, what do you think, how much would you spend on an engagement ring?
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