Engagement Rings -- Diamond or Not?

Estimation of prices are made from jamesallen.com. I do not work for them or have any contact with them. Their rings are beautiful (that is why I picked this site) and I am in no way asking people not to purchase jewelry from them.

Let's start by saying that I do have a boyfriend (in case you haven't read my posts) and we've been dating for two years. I hope that we will get married in 1-2 years since we are totally in love and he's my soul mate =) We've talked about marriage very early on in the relationship because I wanted to know if he wants marriage one day -- since I do.  We're both graduating from college in May 2011 and then continuing on to graduate school which I will write about since it will be very different and exciting.

Anyway--on to the point of this article, having to pay tuition and hopefully an apartment starting next summer--we don't have a big budget for an expensive engagement ring. I told my boyfriend that if he plans on asking me to marry him in the next 2 years he better not spend more then $500 on it because it would be a waste. I didn't always have this philosophy because back when I was young and stupid I wanted a real diamond ring. I thought to myself even if it was tiny I would want a real one--but secretly I thought my fiance would have a steady job and could afford 3-5 months salary on a diamond ring. You can't help who you fall for, and I'm not the type of girl to marry for money. Not ideal for me. I also used to think that I would like to marry someone a bit older, someone who had a job and apartment by the time I finish college. Some friends of mine have boyfriends like I just described and I just don't like that situation. I prefer being with someone who is going through the same things I'm going through. We're in the same college, studying related things, hoping to go to the same (or close enough) graduate school together and getting a place there. So I really don't expect him to go out and buy a $10,000 ring because realistically, that's how much a really nice one would be. What would you do if you could customize the ring for your fiancée to be? Would you want it to be bigger or clearer, or with a better cut, or with fewer imperfections? If you put all those categories in the middle--say you want something "average" for her. You can't go crazy but you don't want some cheap thing. First what you have to know is that as the carat (size) gets bigger, the quality goes down. It's just how it is. You can't find natural diamonds which are as big as a fist with no imperfections and a clear color. Okay so even if you put everything on medium you will still have to pay a great amount of money. Say you go on any famous store's website and you just pick out a diamond:  round, G color, VS1 clarity, Premium cut, 0.5 carats. The cheapest of these will be $1,720. The next one on the line has 0.69 carats and the same other characteristics will push the price to $2,250. Now say that you don't really want to give your girl and average rock. You bump the color up to a F (one higher level than G), and the clarity to VVS2 (one higher then VS1). That 0.5 carat will not be $2,140 and the 0.70 $3,410. Just keep in mind that this is just the diamond. It does not include the ring or wedding band. The ring and band should be made of something very durable as well, since it should last forever, right?

Okay so the setting--going with the simplest available--round setting solitaire (with no side stones or other embellishment)--white gold (before yellow gold is very old fashioned and gross, oh and the price is basically the
same--the other option is platinum which is more expensive) = cheapest $360. Now say you want something more pretty to put that diamond you just bought in. You decided to put sidestones with white gold = cheapest $775 and goes up by $50-100. The 4th most expensive one is $1,000.
So say you picked the sidestone version of the setting which is between $700-1000 + $2000-3000 diamond. That adds up to a total price of  #$2500-4500 (don't forget the wedding bands for both of you and insurance on all the rings in case they are ruined or something of that sort). By the way, the above pictures are of real diamonds and settings from jamesallen, and they are not 0.5 carat! Here is a carat chart:

You can see that buying a real diamond is very expensive. The most common sizes that average people buy is 0.70 carat (the highest of the ranges of prices given earlier). Some studies show that the average price spent on a ring is between $5000 and $7000. This is much lower then the barely minimum alternative discussed here. So why would you do this, is my question?
Say you are 23, 24, just out of college, into graduate school, or finished with it, or working--where do you have $5000 to pay for this? Is it coming out of you rent, food, student loans, savings? I really don't think so. While some may have the means to do this, others have to wait a long time for them to afford it. The average age of educated married men and women is going up. Many get married after 30 years of age, and have 1 or 2 children or no children at all. More and more education is needed to do the jobs you want, and thus more and more time is needed to get those degrees while paying off students loans.

You could get your education, have that great job, and get married at the same time. Just don't spend money of stupid things.