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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think the price of specs is awful

56 replies

TheConfusedofthedeadOne · 04/10/2008 17:30

went and had my eyes tested today, chose a nice pair of specs from the cheapest range, bog standard lenses (without anti scratch, anti glare HD and whatever)

They are varifocal tho.

£325.00 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What do people on low income do!! (yes I know people on benefits can get help, there was a quite a nice range with NHS vouchers) but what about the low earners not getting benefits of any sort!

OP posts:

lynniep · 04/10/2008 17:35

bl**dy hell where did you go? admittedly I only need single vision but I got two pairs from tesco (one with antiglare) for £120 and I chose the medium priced ones (£89), not the cheapest

MandMand · 04/10/2008 17:35

I've bought my last few pairs of specs online - you can get a decent pair for around £35. Just ask your optician for a copy of your prescription to take away with you.

JuliePurchill · 04/10/2008 17:36

I have a pair of Ralph Lauren and I paid £121

Original poster

TheConfusedofthedeadOne · 04/10/2008 17:42

Vision Express! the actual frames were £89.00

OP posts:

lulumama · 04/10/2008 17:46

once i have my new eye prescription, i shall be ordering a pair from glasses direct which are £20 including lenses

Horton · 04/10/2008 17:49

Specsavers are brilliant. At least you get a spare pair or a pair of sunglasses for your money as well as your actual glasses.

lulumama · 04/10/2008 17:49

these are lovely and £40

and£25!

nooka · 04/10/2008 17:50

Mine were just short of five hundred, but I do have thinned lenses, which is most of the expense. Makes the forty quid for ds's glasses seem very cheap!

Original poster

TheConfusedofthedeadOne · 04/10/2008 17:54

I had to have a eye test as mine was 3 years old and I knew that my reading bit of the varifocal needed upgrading, so had to go to a option for them.

I went to Spec savers last time and paid quite alot there to.

It must be my lenses

OP posts:

Wordsmith · 04/10/2008 17:56

Mine are about £500 but then I'm incredibly short sighted! I always end up having the cheapest frames as I'm hyperventilating over the cost of the lenses. Have vowed to get some nice fashionable ones this time as my contacts make my eyes sore and I'm wearing my specs more and more. But I doubt if I'll be able to afford them.

cat64 · 04/10/2008 18:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

geogteach · 04/10/2008 18:03

I went to get some the other day, overheard a women being told the price of her varifocals, she was literally distraught at the price and evidently had no means of paying them, after much tooing and froing to the optician it was decided she could have bifocals which would be free. I was very angry for the person involved that the whole thing took place where everyone could hear.

smurfgirl · 04/10/2008 18:04

Mine were £280 recently on a buy one get one free from Boots! Boots is incredibly expensive for glasses though.

I have anti-scratch, anti-reflection and thinned lenses (one eye is -3.00) and thats what bumps the price right up. Even for those £25 glasses I would still be looking at another £60!

I also have a very small face and I tried on loads of glasses - specsavers, vision express etc and they were all huge on me, esp as bulky is fashionable.

Ended up with these and they look dead chunky on my face.
www.bootsopticians.com/glasses/Ghost/GH-SWEET-PEA/b85ce096-4715-43df-9b6b-54de7ff87f2d/product.aspx

Original poster

TheConfusedofthedeadOne · 04/10/2008 18:05

Its the varifocal that costs, just looked online and even the cheapest I can find is about 200.00

OP posts:

smurfgirl · 04/10/2008 18:07

Chunky in a nice way though!

wheresthehamster · 04/10/2008 18:24

Aaaargh! Don't talk about SPECS!!!

Dp decided 2 months ago to get some trendy specs for the first time in his life. We both blanched at £450 but they were great so went ahead.

He lost them last week at a health club. Vanished off the face of the earth. We are currently waiting for confirmation that we can get something back off of our house insurance.

I was SO cross with him

lulumama · 04/10/2008 18:26

have decided i will forgeo thinned lenses on mine. i have one fancy pair, chanel rimless ones that were soooo expensive i can;t even bear to remember but i have had them for almost 5 years... my prescription has not changed enough really to justify madly expensive new glasses, but i need a spare pair or two as i need them to drive, so i keep them in the car, but i cannot read the sky plus etc without them on! so i will get cheap and cheerful ones

smurfgirl · 04/10/2008 18:40

I think it depends how much you wear them, I wear mine all the time, so 12+ hours a day every single day. My last lot three years ago cost £250 but worth it for so much wear.

MarkStretch · 04/10/2008 18:46

I too am incredibly short sighted and my last pair cost me £280 due to the fact I either have to have high index or glass lenses.

I don't have expensive frames and they usually look so bad I never wear them out of the house, but instead just at night and in the morning when I don't have my contacts in.

My contacts are £150 a pair.

When my prescription has changed I have often kept my old glasses simply because I cannot afford the £500+ for new glasses and lenses.

I once had an optician say to me that it's not fair that the people that need them the most end up paying the highest price!

caoutchouc · 04/10/2008 18:52

Go to Tesco. Mine were £20 incliding full sight test, and scratch resistant coating.

I just walked in, no appointment, and had a test there and then. Specs were ready within the week and are brill.

caoutchouc · 04/10/2008 18:54

Sometimes have a bit of trouble seeing the keyboard. On the brink of needing bifocals but managing atm by peering under the rim for close up stuff.

RustyBear · 04/10/2008 18:59

I like Specsavers too - when I went, the chap did all the tests, then put in two sets of lenses for me to compare, one the ones he would prescribe and the other a standard 2.5 reading glasses, like you get in Boots - he said if you can't tell the difference, then get the ones from Boots - I couldn't tell them apart so I now have 3 pairs from Boots, one for work, one for home & one for my handbag, at a total cost of £45!

LackaDAISYcal · 04/10/2008 19:03

I got two pairs of Bench frames from Tesco for £140 plus a free eye test. They would have been much cheaper, around £90, but I got an anti reflective coating on both pairs.

DH got his Tesco ones today; one pair Diesel with standard lenses, the other Storm with polarised tinted lenses (for his fishing) and again just under £150.

laweaselmys · 04/10/2008 19:11

I agree, I spent about £200 on mine, but since I will keep these frames for at least the next three or four years I've got no objection to paying that much. Although, I had to budget and get by with my rubbishy old pair for about 6 months to save up for the initial investment.

I reckon it just ends up being one of those things that you have to think about in advance if you've got money issues.

SaintRiven · 04/10/2008 19:15

bloody hell. Mine were £100 and are that memory metal stuff.
The boys both got a voucher towards the cost but I couldn't get one for mine as we don't get income support despite low income.

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