When Mr. Blue Moon and I were searching for the perfect engagement ring for me, I had two rules: I wanted it to be unique, and I wanted it to be affordable. During the time that we were engagement-ring shopping, I was working two part-time jobs, and Mr. Blue Moon was working intermittently during his summers off. We did not have a lot of money to throw around (and on my teacher’s salary, we still don’t), so I knew it was going to be very difficult to find something we could both agree on.
I looked at a couple of different websites to find ideas. I know I frequented Overstock.com to see if we could find a good deal there.

I loved this beautiful ring with vintage detail. It’s so luscious! But at $1,035, it was out of our tiny budget. / Image via Overstock.com After quickly realizing that many of the diamond styles were either out of our budget or much smaller/lower quality than what I was envisioning, we began to consider other stones. For a while, I went on a black diamond kick. Sadly, Mr. Blue Moon hates the idea of black diamonds, and looking back, they are probably too modern looking to match my personal style, anyway. But aren’t they drool-worthy"

I tend to gravitate toward rings with interesting detail on the band. This beauty is only $383.34. / Image via Overstock.com
I also considered white topaz for the center stone. Blue topaz is my December birthstone, so it made sense in my head. For this, I turned to Amazon. Yes, I’m lazy ...