Monarchs Glen

Any tips? Right now I am just stuffing money into an envelope. I plan on proposing to her in June, just before her birthday. I have already been told if I were to ask, she would say yes.

I am thinking about opening up a 6 month CD so I can get it to do a little bit of work for me. I have plans with her best girlfriend to go out shopping in a couple weeks. I have no idea what to expect. Right now, we are planning on moving in together. She lives about an hour and a half from me. I am searching for a new job down there. I love my current job, but I love my lady as well. She is a teacher and it is pretty tough to find a teaching job. It is easier for me the IT guy to find something. Apparently, I am not allowed to sit on my ass and play video games. She expects me to work! The gall of this woman!

Anyways, if anyone has any good tips, Atla, I'm looking your way and that scares me, please let me know what you know. Thanks!

Some places, like Zales, etc. allow you to get credit with them. You can use that to purchase the ring and then just pay it off as you go. Sometimes you can even get 6 months or 1 year no interest.

"I have no idea what to expect" Expect your lady to know exactly what you're gna buy before you've left the building

Get one with a keyfinder attachment

if she loves you thenshe love what ever ring you get her......

Listen to Demmy, most places should have financing options. They may even offer longer plans that will have interest. But she sounds like she is worth it!

congrats and good luck.
you can always take her ring shopping to find the right one after you ask her.

Yeah, best let the missus to be pick it out to Capt'n.

My advise is run while you still have the chance.

Just buy a pretty ring and ask. It's not as bad as many would have you believe.

I don't think a 6 month CD is really going to help you out that much (like $50 on $10,000--adjust that figure according to your budget). I think I agree with everyone here. Treat it like a car. Save up a good chunk and pay it off before the end of whatever sweet financing deal the jewelry store offers. And get it insured.

But if you're about to cohabitate, take that money to the BANK. You don't want her to find a envelope with a shitload of cash.

Who in his right mind would spend more than $1000 on an engagement ring?

Actually I dropped more than a grand on mine.

I'll tell ya what I did. I asked a mutual friend to be sneaky and ask some questions to get a feel for what she might like and what ring size she is(Keep in mind it's better to be half a size to big than to small so she can actually wear it). Of course for me it helped that there were some bridal magazines laying around the house with pages folded on certain dresses and ring ads.

Than, back in august I started dropping money. I just finished a long period of training, so I was able to pay off about 3/4's of it on the spot. After that I threw some money at it every once in a while. I already had the date picked(USMC Ball), so I had a deadline to have it paid off by. And at the time, I was making bank.

I did some diamond research, I wanted a conflict diamond but they're hard to get now. Enh.

I ended up going with a Halo Cut, which is a single round solitare in the center surrounded by smaller diamonds in a circle. With even smaller crusted diamonds going partway down the band on each side away from the center of the ring.

The halo cut was a good choice though. Nice

*grin*


We skipped the engagement ring part and bought the wedding rings together. Our daughter shat majestically in the jeweller's store that day.


It was brilliant!

Good tips all, especially you Grunt.

Yeah, really the CD was just to give me a specific place to put the cash. I don't want to get the urge to spend it at any time. I'm not going to buy anything without showing her. She won't be surprised as to what it looks like, but she won't know when I plan on asking.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Ron,

I actually did the "let her pick the ring herself" thing. We were at the mall one day and I got a phone call that ended up running a little long. There was some jewelry store across the way and I jokingly told her she should go find a ring. So when I finished she was in the store looking, and when I started pointing out rings to her she had this "uhhh..thats not what I would wear" kinda look on her face.

We ended up shopping a few different stores but she picked out the ring she liked (she went small and simple, princess cut) and I held onto it for almost 6 months before I asked. The surprise was when I asked.

As far as saving money -

What I just recently did was took advantage of a promotion at work to open up a free banking account. I have no fees, no minimum balance, don't pay for checks, free ATM withdraws at over 35,000 ATM's nation wide and if I ever go negative the bank picks up the fees for me. Perk for working at a bank. But anyway - I opened up an account and then set my direct deposit up to put $100.00 in this new account every paycheck (so every two weeks) and the rest of my paycheck in the joint acocunt with the wife.

I keep the ATM card at home, never with me. I have no urge to spend it because honestly I forget it is there until I get a statement. I figure by the time we go to Disney next year I'll be able to afford the whole trip plus some extras.

Just a thought.

Yuppers, save money and stop supporting blood diamonds by going for either Canadian mined or created diamonds. The created ones can only be told from batural by a cemical test and Canada has some really tough environmental laws about mining.

And TELL her what you have done. Nothing sexier than a guy who actually put thought into the stone itself and chose cruelty free.

I got my wife a channel cut setting in a platinum band with oh i think it had 5 maybe 6 diamonds set in it. Like they said i went to the jeweler and i got the credit card

I proposed last september, and due to a lack of funds I got a rather cheap ring. A very pretty one, though. A nice ring doesn't have to be expensive. The money you save on your engagement ring can be spent on wedding/wedding rings.

MoP wrote:I proposed last september, and due to a lack of funds I got a rather cheap ring. A very pretty one, though. A nice ring doesn't have to be expensive.

It's true, it's true. Even if he bought me a crappy ring, I said "yes".


(Grats!)