How much for glasses? £500?

[DustyLee123]

I don’t wear glasses, so no idea how much they cost, but DH came home last week and said that he’d spent over £500 on a new pair. It seems extortionate to me, or is it normal?

I find Asda better value than Specsavers
.@Redannie118 yours sound a great price , where did you buy from ?

It definitely depends where you go and what eyes you have. £500 is very high though.

Mine come in an shade under £300 and that includes thinned lenses, an insured scratch resistant coating (mine always get scratched so it replaces my lenses), plus all the coatings.

I go to an independent optician because my eyes are a bit difficult. I've tried a cheap place once and the pair of glasses I chose as my primary pair weren't right and and I went back multiple times and they insisted they were. Given how bad my eyesight is I'm just not prepared to risk that again.

If you want less expensive glasses I think Asda is the best value but for me it's worth paying an independent place to be certain everything will be perfect.

My new glasses in December were £450. I am very limited with frame style so they were expensive. I am very short sighted. -11 and -12. Lenses were about £175 each side from memory.

On mine it’s definitely the thinning of lens and something for anti-stigmism I think that adds the most additional cost. I have one eye with low and one high so without thinning lens, it would be really noticeable

Something that always occurs to me with these threads is why are people so quick to brand expensive glasses as ‘extortionate’ (though as I just said, £500 is by no means unusual)
There are choices with pretty much everything we need to buy. I don’t hear people routinely describing expensive cars or expensive clothes as ’extortionate’. People would just choose a less expensive alternative.
It’s the same with glasses. Just find some less expensive ones. They most likely won’t be as good quality, but there are choices.

I think the people horrified at the additional cost and ‘adding extras’ to lenses must have pretty low prescriptions.

No one with a high prescription (potentially plus astigmatism) in both eyes, is going to be getting the basic lenses unless they have absolutely no choice. The lenses are so thick and so heavy, the effects of glare are so much worse and you simply do not have functional sight without correction.

The cost of the lenses means that there simply is no cheap option for some people. Even if they choose the really cheap frames, the lenses are extortionate.

I find it even stranger that there is some support when you're quite short sighted, but it's so miinimal - it's something like £14 for normal glasses and £38 for varifocals. It just seems bizarre for them to bother with the hassle of such a scheme when it's a drop in the ocean for buying such expensive lenses. It's not like it's the amount that you could get the cheapest lenses for, which I'd understsand, or even the difference between stronger lenses and cheaper ones. But just a random contribution that makes little practical difference - if you were unable to buy glasses, £14 wouldn't be enough to convince you that you should if you weren't otherwise going to or something. And if you are that short sighted, you can't really not buy them. So it's all a bit strange. Nonetheless, having the £14/£38 taken off is still welcome of course. I just wonder whether overall it's actually worth it for that scheme to exist. The dispensing assistant at my opiticians was really annoyed about it

There is though. If you are on certain types of benefits, you can get NHS funded specs.
I agree that generally it seems unfair that some people have this expense while others don’t, but people who quality for certain benefits at least don’t have to pay for glasses.

Yes it sounds about right for me, but it depends on his prescription, frame cost, lens coverings etc

Glasses are not cheap, I wonder about these adverts I see for dirt cheap glasses, cant be much good but then I have a really high prescription, astigmatism, need all the lens coverings and thinnings etc

I go for the cheap frames but you could go for designer frames and those alone are a couple of hundred.

I am blind as a bat so have to get mine thinned down. Add in that cost, plus the cost of a low level designer frame, and my last ones were approx £400.
Hence the reason the ones I wear are about 5 years old.
In his defence, if he needs glasses )and they're not just for occasional screen work) £500 isn't bad-he's going to wear them EVERY DAY. On his face. It's not like being able to buy cheap underwear and no one sees it. I haven't bought new glasses as I want nice ones and I can't afford it. Everyone is going to see them every day, he wants something nice,
If it means you can't pay the mortgage this month, he's wrong. But if you've got the money, I think you're being unreasonable (I appreciate this isn't in AIBU!)

My prescription is pretty low so my current glasses cost me £25. Normally I pay around £150 but this time went for budget and actually they have been fine.

the more complex someone’s Prescription the easier it is for costs to add up but for just reading glasses it does seem a lot!

That doesn’t surprise me. Glasses can cost alot if mobey. Yes, you can get cheaper , but you can also pay more.

I think you may be referring to the NHS funded contribution for ‘complex’ lenses (v high prescription) which I agree is not a lot.
However many opticians will do a fully NHS funded pair of glasses for people who qualify.

Yes quite possible to spend this amount. I need prescription strong enough to have to wear them all the time, so I get the highest level of thinking and anti-glare coating or whatever it is. I have to wear them all the time so I want to be comfortable.

My glasses last year came to £700ish. Admittedly I’ve two pairs, but the second set were where I basically ‘saved’ money and I need a second pair because despite now wearing glasses full time, I constantly lose them! One set was about £500, I need varifocals.

I can easily see at an independent opticians rather than a chain a normal pair of glasses and lenses coming in at that.

It may be the case that in your budget that was a lot and he should have talked it through with you first, but certainly in my case I would always expect to spend that much on my glasses. And I’m not normally a spendy person - everything else is second hand!

Which opticians do fully funded for those who have the complex voucher?!

I get this as I'm extremely short sighted with astigmatism so it's like a free eye test and a few pounds towards the glasses.

I've never been offered fully funded!!!

Mine were around £500. But they're varifocals and the frame was expensive. I didn't mind paying that because I have them on my face all day. I would have got cheaper frames if it was only for reading and watching tv though. £500 is pretty steep for that, unless the prescription s complex and the bulk of the cost.

Well… it’s good that there’s something but I would grumpily like there to be something for people with a -8 prescription too! I’m probably being unreasonable, it just niggles at me!

That can definitely be normal. It depends very much on the complexity of the lenses. Mine are fairly straightforward and, even with so-called designer frames, they are about £250. I have a friend whose glasses cost a lot more, even when she goes for basic frames.

I'm shortsighted and have astigmatism -5 so not mega, but need thinned lenses and all that jazz. I think my latest ones were between 2 and 300 from specsavers, which was about mid range for the frame price.

But 20 years ago when I was about 19 I foolishly went to an independent optician because I'd noticed they had great frames, chose a really lovely pair (no price labels!) had the eye test, really happy till it came time to pay and it was about £600! I paid it because I was really embarrassed and self concious, and did love the glasses, but it was a hell of a shock! If he's gone for designer frames and various extras then I can easily see it hitting 500.

I buy the cheapest frames I can because my lenses are so expensive. However, my choice is very limited as I have a small head and most frames are too big for me.

I wear high power varifocals. I don't often get much change from £500 including sight test. My lenses alone are upward of £300. This is from a local independent optician.

I have bought glasses from Asda opticians in the past too - much cheaper, £200 for 2 pairs, but a year in, the lenses are delaminating and the frames are getting twisty.

So do they look “expensive” and special, or do they look like humdrum High Street glasses? I passed an old lady in the street yesterday - late 80’s, sharply pixie cut grey hair, uber-stylish wide caramel cords, the most deluxe knitwear and wearing round, thickish turtoise-shell type glasses. I must admit I stared - the overall effect was fabulous snd the glasses looked magnificent

I think it's fair that he should have warned you before.

DH has expensive glasses and needs multiple sets, his eyes are too bad for varifocals so while we save on that it means normal glasses, sunglasses, reading glasses, computer glasses....

However he does give me warning that his glasses are coming up. And there is the option of having cheaper frames, for readers it doesn't need to be designer.