She's expecting a ring sometime this year. Been getting more than subtle hints. Never shopped for one. I definitely know a lot more about pin pricing than rings. Forget the two or three months salary thing - that's nonsense. But she definitely knows what NIB pins costs. I've bought a few higher end machines over the years but usually trade them out. I've got money in games, but I can usually get most of that back out. Can't really do that with a ring. Money spent on that will mean no machines for awhile.

If I go too cheap, will she compare the ring to my pins? If I spend too much, can't buy more pinball.

I may have to sell a machine or two to finance this. How have you dudes managed this?

Well wasn't expecting so many replies so quick. Good stuff - been reading through everything.

She doesn't wear jewelry really. Her ears aren't even pierced. At most she wears a bracelet and thin neckless. Yet I'm sure if I let her pick it out, we'd end up at Tiffany & Co. because their marketing has convinced her its the best. I'm thinking maybe we could do that for a band which are usually pretty generic. But I feel the transitional thing is to surprise the girl. Seeing here a lot of advice to not do that. Definitely going to focus more on finding out what shapes she'd like.

I'm pretty confident its going to be a simple solitaire with a nice stone. She's very traditional in her dress.

Good advice, I better do the knee thing. She asked me how things were going when we were dating for like 6 months and said "just fine." I still haven't heard the end of that. She reminds me at least once weekly that things are just FINE.

Attracting the wrong attention is definitely a concern. Hadn't thought of that.

I feel like financing this with credit is probably not a wise financial move. I don't even put pins on credit. Rates are pretty low, but I try to keep credit open for investments when possible. My plan is to use a credit card for points and then pay it off immediately.

She (and her mother) have mentioned diamond around marriage a few times - I know that's on her mind. She's pretty traditional. She loves vintage stuff though. Kind of doubting that would extend to no diamond.

Totally agree, but I haven't really found a good place to shop for vintage rings and stones. Maybe that's just more of an inspersion thing. Online it seems to easy to be scammed. I went to a major jewelry mart Downtown and felt overwhelmed.

100% - GIA is the only thing I'd consider. I don't trust myself to not make a mistake not buying some rando cert when I likely can't tell the difference myself. I found Blue Nile online and that seems like something I could trust for the stone itself. They let you filter by cert.

I pitched, what if we bought each other nice watches instead of rings? I showed her a Tiffany blue Oyster Perpetual thinking surly this would win her over. Way better investment than a rock. She rejected that idea immediately. I'm going to guess a pin isn't going to work. Though -- she did enjoy playing Avengers LE

I've been told this more than once. Its a great idea, but she knows about Costco and their return policy unfortunately. The women are on to this one.

Yeah, I've become resigned to the fact this is money I'll never see again.

My mom worked furniture retail growing up; moving sofa's and mattress everyday. She wore a ring a bit too big for that job too. She was always hitting it on things, scratching, and tearing up stuff. I 100% understand this. But would my GF understand this beforehand? Hmmm....

its only fair. For real, where's the women's proposals to us dudes? I keep telling her I've been eyeing an Omega Dark Side of the Moon watch. Still waiting... Though would that mean I pay for the wedding then? Hmm, that might not be a good trade. She's been watching some Disney enchanted wedding show. Every time she calls me over to look at it I say the same thing, looks expensive

NIB stern toppers are a lot rarer than diamonds. I could try saying the KISS topper reminds me of her, but she probably wouldn't go for it.