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?

DH glasses are always over £500, he has a high prescription with astigmatism and varifocals. He tried cheap online once and it ended up damaging his eyesight. Last trip to the optiician cost £1k for 2 pairs , one with reactive lenses. We do have some medical insurance through work where we can claim back part of the money spent on glasses.
Mine prescription is mild and dont cost me a lot.

But would you discuss a car repair when you can't use the car otherwise?

Yes I would.
Because it’s a big spend for our budget. Also because it might trigger a question along the lines of ‘do we want to repair that car or give up and buy another’ (yes we drive old cars that might not be worth repairing).

It doesn’t mean that let’s say would put a veto on me buying glasses at that price or repairing the car at that price.
It means we are a team and work together re bigger financial,decisions.

@VillageOnSmile Lots of opticians have cameras to overcome this. Or just get someone to go with you, take a picture of you wearing the potential new frames then look through them with your existing glasses on. One of my friends, who has a very strong prescription and could barely identify her husband at ten paces without glasses, does this !

I wouldnt dream of making dh discuss his glasses with me first!

Mine were £450. But they are designer. And have had them reglazed several times.

It means we are a team and work together re bigger financial,decisions.

Buying glasses isn't a decision - it's a necessity. Like insulin for a diabetic or inhalers for an asthmatic. If we didn't have the money to pay for my glasses upfront would just have to go into debt. Discussing it with DH wouldn't change anything.

Mine need to be thinned way down, varifocals and I need the transitions lenses as eyes are really sensitive to sunlight and just cannot be doing with constantly swapping glasses. Not allowed contacts because I'm blind in one eye and no optician will sign off on contacts due to the increased risk of infections which could affect the sight in my good eye.

So yeah, glasses are expensive. I use Direct Sight or Glasses Online which are A LOT cheaper than high street opticians.

I'd also discuss my purchase with a partner, if I had one, and if we had joint finances. Not in a way that meant they could veto it, but in a way that we could decide when the best time was. Usually I know when I'm likely to be needing new glasses, so spending £900 now vs in two months in possibly a decision that can be made depending on what else is happening. I usually have current glasses that can do for a few weeks more if needed. That kind of thing.

Or maybe we'd decide not to book theatre or whatever, because I know that glasses are coming up. There are lots of aspects to a joint decision about it that don't mean someone else is controlling the spend - just that you might want to discuss it and work out how to afford it and when.

As i happens, I'm on my own, but I still do that - I'll consider how desperately I need new lenses when I go in next month, and if I can leave it for a months or a year, I will, because I've just hda expensive car bills. If I can't, I might still wait a few weeks, and get them in May instead of april.

If they are for reading and TV, they will be varifocals. He is both long and short sighted.

I was answering the op Sherlock, that’s what her partner uses them for, back in your box genius.

My most recent pair were close to 500 but they are varifocal with the top of the range lenses. My previous reading glasses were about £150 and included a second pair which I got as prescription sunglasses

If they are for reading and TV, they will be varifocals. He is both long and short sighted.

Yes, they will be.

It depends on his prescription, mine cost almost that, I have extremely long sight, varifocals, thinned lenses aith a scratch proof coating and reactolight. I usually don't buy designer frames but if he has that will also add to the price.

I think I paid around £500 for two pairs of glasses from Specsavers about 18 months ago - I thought that was expensive enough! I have a complicated prescription and had all the extras (eg extra thin lenses and one pair were rimless. Boots Opticians, where I went to for alternative quotes, were about double. 🌹

It depends on how bad your eyes are and what you need, as well as the frames. Mine were about £500 but my eyesight is very bad so I need thinning lenses, anti glare etc plus varifocals. I treated myself to a nice frame but that was only £120

Depends on prescription.mone is a bit of bastard so expensive.

Actually I have worn glasses since I was 18 and we both wear them all the time so I don't see it as frivolous. I don't wear budget glasses either.

I admire your advanced budgeting skills, I aspire to this.

In the meantime, this is how it happens in our house: we'll say to the other, I've got an eye test coming up, new specs will likely be £300 or so. Let's look the books and see whether that's fine as it is, or do we need to adjust other planned spending to compensate this month? That's all.

So, we don't make major purchases, regardless of how essential they are without just having that sort of sense check.

Ditto, ditto and ditto! First set of varifocals were a bit of a shock, but terrible eyeshit with astigmatism always meant decent ones were expensive.

The last couple of pairs I bought were from Specsavers. Before that I went to Boots, but I think they are pricing themselves out of the market.

I did have some wih magentic sunglasses that fixed to my glasses frames which were ace for driving in changeable weather, but the last time I was quoted for these from Boots about two years ago it would have cost me £800.

She says reading/tv. So close and distance.

And he’s got an eye condition he goes to the hospital for.

It’s very likely that your cheap specsavers deal simply didn’t apply to him. Even if the OP wants to be angry at him.

Oh yes. Fairly sure I've left my noseprint on hundreds of opticians' mirrors.

Then some of them started to install those photographic mirrors (basically a mounted tablet set up to take selfies), and I started carrying a smartphone too, so I thought, great! I can take a photo and see what the glasses look like on me!

Fine in theory. When I tried it, though, I realised that glasses fitted with lovely thin plano lenses look nothing like the same glasses with double-figure minus lenses in them. Nearly every frame I tried on looked great. My glasses all look the same

They're for reading and watching TV? That is not a simple lens.

My glasses are between £25 and £80 a pair.

Yes, those things stood out for me too.

So, back in your box @RoseBucket

And what is that for? A simple short or long vision prescription?