Saving on Glasses

Face it, glasses are expensive.  So are contacts.  And for those of us who need vision correction, there's not much other option that's really affordable.

I used to wear contacts for a while in high school and college, but once I didn't have vision insurance anymore and had to pay for them on my own, it was cheaper to wear my glasses.  Contacts got expensive with the solution, cases, occasionally tearing them and going through them faster.  Plus, I was always a hard fit because mine had to be weighted, which meant that if they were a bad fit, they floated around and didn't do their job and made me woozy.  Then, I realized that it was easier to do glasses too.  Just pop them on to begin the day or off at the end of the day and you're set.

But after ten plus years (we'd been fortunate that our prescription hadn't changed much), the frames of mine were a little worse for wear.  Benny's were in the same shape.  And we both had been wishing for prescription sunglasses for a while to deal with winter driving and the glare from the snow, and (for me at least) to take to the pool or the beach in the summer for reading.

So, we started hearing about Zenni Optical a while ago from friends.  We were a little hesitant to order glasses online.  We didn't want to waste money and end up with something that didn't work or we didn't like after receiving it.  But we were curious enough to watch the site for a while and wait for a good deal.  We figured if we got sunglasses that didn't work, it wasn't a huge loss.

Finally, a few months ago, we got our chance.  They were running a buy two, get one free sale.  So, we took a date night one night to pick out our frames and ordered ourselves each sunglasses and a new pair of glasses for Benny.  The grand total?? About $45 for all three pairs!

And the best part, we love them.  It's been great having sun glasses and Benny's really enjoyed his new glasses.  The one drawback was that they needed some minor adjustments, but that's an easy fix by taking them to a walk-in optician, like Walmart or somewhere.

What have you done to save green on glasses?  I'd love to hear from you!