Engagement ring money advice, please!

BARGAINHUNTER!

Go to the jewellery quarter in Birmingham and buy a diamond. It will cost you a fraction of what you would pay on the high street, and she can then have it made up into a ring of whatever style she chooses. £5k is a awful lot of money to spend, and hopefully she will be wearing it forever. What if she does not like what you picked or it looks silly on her finger? In my opinion its the quality that counts not the size, so concentrate on getting the best quality diamond you can afford. Have a look in the jewellers and see the size difference between a 1 carat and 1/2 carat and not the price then head off to Birmingham and grab yourself a bargain.

Im sure she would not be best pleased if she knew that you got into debt again to buy a ring, and everytime she looked at it she would think of the debt.

If you really must give her a ring now, give her a cheapie, and tell her that you will go shopping for a 'proper' ring later when you have saved up. Im sure she would love you more for it. I know that I would!

smitchy73

I got mine's from a wholesaler who took in private customers, I was recommended to them from my boss at the time who liked art, Grade A watches and jewelry, I got a beautiful thick 18ct gold ring, with a sapphire(very dark but transparent) surrounded with a ring of small diamonds, with a larger diamond in each shoulder of the ring, I paid about £350 for it but it was valued at over £1k, my now wife nearly choked when she seen it on the insurance paperwork.
The idea of travelling to Dubai or somewhere similar does have a certain amount of sense, because you can usually save the costs of the flights on what you spend on the rings, and if you research it enough, and know where to go in advance, then you can look good with the to the ladyfriend.
As for the finacial part of it, I'm not the best to advise, however, if you can get a 0% on purchases CC then why not go for it, then that would be better than a loan for £5k with nearly 20% interest on it. And as one of the previous posters said, if you get the BA one where you get a bonus of miles, plus what you would get for buying the ring, you could be on to a winner for the trip away too.

paddyrg

Remember import duty. OK so you may choose not to declare your purchase and diddle HMRC out of their rightful money by what is by any other name, gem smuggling, but it is worth remembering! Just another thought - Will the lady recipient actually be able to tell the difference between diamond and good quality CZ? I know manufacturing jewellers who need to look twice to be sure.

jon_boy75

paddyrg wrote: »

Remember import duty. OK so you may choose not to declare your purchase and diddle HMRC out of their rightful money by what is by any other name, gem smuggling, but it is worth remembering! Just another thought - Will the lady recipient actually be able to tell the difference between diamond and good quality CZ? I know manufacturing jewellers who need to look twice to be sure.

I'm not about to lose too much sleep over this when the government appoints Phillip Green as an advisor!

But that's just me

Sally-B_2

Firstly, congratulations in advance )

Me and my parter went shopping for my engagement ring before he asked me and I couldnt ask for anything more perfect. After looking at the rings from the not so cheap Prestons of Bolton we decided to go to Ernest Jones and my perfect ring stood out at me. I didnt want the same as everyone else, its a chunky white gold 18k with diamonds and it was half price!!!! From £1400 to just £700. This was an absolute bargain, I love it. I wouldnt have cared whther it was £100 or £1000 all that mattered is that I was engaged to my perfect man. Aslong as your both happy, why would it need to cost a fortune? My partner paid for mine on the 9months 0%finance option after putting a £100 deposit down.

cattyboo

Yowser! That's a lot of pennies! You're so sweet to want to go to all this expense with the sparkler and the trip away and everything but I think it's all a bit unnecessary. Don't get me wrong, I love shiny things as much as the next woman, but if my partner asked me to marry him then I'm be over the moon and I wouldn't care about having a ring at all, the prospect of spending the rest of my life with him (nagging about the housework and generally getting on his nerves :rotfl:) would be more than enough.

On top of that, weddings can also be quite a colossal cost, what if she wants a massive fairytale wedding and a luxury honeymoon? More loans? More debt? It's crazy to keep borrowing to try and afford material things that don't really matter in the long term, be who you are, live the lifestyle your means can afford, if you're true to yourself and find she doesn't want to stay around then you haven't really lost much, if she's OK with it then you've already got a diamond

Also, congrats on clearing the debts that must feel amazing. :T I'm just starting to deal with mine and can't imagine how great I'd feel to be debt free...so I can't quite understand why after all the effort you'd put yourself straight back where you started? You big romantic loon! :happyhear

Basically, if my boyfriend proposed on an ordinary tuesday at home with a hula hoop for a ring I'd be just as thrilled as if he did it in the Maldives with a huge diamond! (And if I found out he'd got himself into debt to afford any of it I'd go spare!)

Best of luck to you though, whatever you decide

C x

ILW

Get down to Argos with about fifty quid.

jonty1970

My boyfriend had talked about getting engaged, then asked in a round about way what type of ring I would like. I showed him the style I wanted (gold band and a plain solitaire) and I warned him NOT to spend a fortune. I even told him to go to a pawn shop, I didn't care where it came from.

He bought me a beautiful solitaire, with 6 small diamonds round the base. it looks like a crown from the side. (I don't actually know how much it cost though)

For £5,000 we could do our wedding and have a Sun holiday honeymoon! Don't go over £1,000 for a ring. I think most women just want a pretty diamond and it is only a symbol of your love. You don't have to spend and arm and a leg

Watalie

jon_boy75 wrote: »

here's what to do...

save £1,000 between now and the summer. Spend £300 on a return flight to Abu Dhabi with Etihad. Buy a £700 ring and fly back.

It will be worth about £2,000+ over here.

Do it

I got our engagement and wedding rings over there, but I had the benefit of a relative to stay with!

Agreed! I got my ring in Dubai last year, we paid £1,900 and it was valued at £5,500 here. Best thing we did.