The New Word: An Affordibauble Ring
A little while ago I learned a new word: “affordibauble”. Alright, alright, you got me.  It’s not a real word, so to speak.Here at the shop, we made it up. But this made up word IS "A Word That Saves You Money".
Challenging the absurd lie about romantic gifts that ‘the more he spends, the more he loves her’
Frankly, the U.S. higher education system might be the biggest scam running. And the way Big Pharma continues profiting off of drugs for those dying in late stage cancer misery-- and buying up and closing down any companies doing research on early cancer detection measures-- may be the most evil thing we’ve seen in the world of business. In our opinion...not far behind on the scammy and evil list, however, is the diamond engagement ring.Beyond the many, MANY lies the diamond industry has told for decades-- these solitaire swindlers have commercialized the emotion of love and somehow managed to transform a personal and thoughtful gift into a status symbol that has come to be measured-- and judged-- by the size (and the price tag). Yeah, we know that sounds more than a little  ‘tin-foil-hat’ crazy to some people.   But if you’re not already a definite ‘Diamond Doubter’, we're not asking a person to believe anything just yet-- until he or she can see the evidence for themselves. All we ask is that you refrain from disbelieving while we show you our proof that 'the more he spends, the more he loves her' is absolute bullshit.
"Blood Diamond" movie and Blood Diamonds IRL: 15 years later, the truth
Beyond great entertainment that brought in $170+ million US dollars at the box office globally, few movies have been more influential in stirring a call for change than this 5-time Academy Award nominated film.  For humanity: the world became more aware of the human rights abuses, dangerous labor practices, terrorist funding, money laundering, and environmental destruction wrought by the mined natural diamond industry. For our business: new customers had yet another powerful reason to choose our 5A diamond-quality CubicZirconia.com CZ stones instead of buying a mined, natural diamond. For the marriage-minded, engagement proposal planner with a future fianceé on the fence about choosing natural mined diamonds or an alternative: he/she can simply have a movie night and watch Blood Diamond together (you won’t have to say much, and if you haven’t seen it…he/she will want to talk after watching). 
Between a rock and a hard place
The discussion with your future spouse about a non-diamond engagement ring can be a tough conversation when society has a certain expectation but you want to do something different. We call it being "between a rock and a hard place". This article will provide a few ideas and resources to help couples talk through the options for a non-mined-diamond alternative. Just as you can create your own wedding experience, you can choose an engagement ring that actually reflects your values-- individually and as a couple. And if you do it together, it's a great test-drive of many future values-driven decisions a marriage will be better off for if a couple makes together.
9 money-saving tips (a saver ant marries a spender grasshopper)
Ants are thrifty and efficient, work hard and save, exercise plenty, look to the future and manage to get everything they can out of everything they’ve got. Grasshoppers prioritize rest, play and partying, and tend to spend more than they earn (eat more than they harvest). It could be because they’re lazier and more wasteful than ants, though in a judgment-free zone we’d just say they prefer to enjoy today without worries about tomorrow.So what happens when an ant (saver) marries a grasshopper (spender)?It should be pretty obvious that a marriage between the an ant and a grasshopper CAN be troublesome and MAY end badly in our opinion...unless the 2 agree to do some or all of these 9 things.