How much is the most you've spent on glasses?

[HereComesEverybody]

I'm due an eye test next week & reckon I'll get some new frames.

I've seen some gorgeous ones which I'll think I'll get but I'll also try on a load of others before deciding.

It's going to cost £500+ with the lens

This seems like a lot but I wear them a lot & they're so visible that I want them to be really nice.

How much have you spent & are there any makes you particularly like

The ones I'm interested in are by https://anneetvalentin.com

Please share any you've have

I’m going to add.
A frame is something you can chose - a nice one, a more fancy one, classic etc…
Lenses. You have much less choices over them. Things like them being thinned down, having an anti scratch layer. But really the cost will be down to your prescription which you can’t control….

No one should be guilty about spending money on what is basically a disability aid. And it’s also ok to have something more fancy imo.

Same for me. I think my last pair were about £400, even with the NHS voucher. Its mostly all lenses though.

I don't need a particularly complex lens at this stage. At least I didn't when my eyes were last tested 2 years ago

I go to the best opticians in my city - a move from Specsavers where i had previously gone for a couple of years.

I wasn't happy with the test or the lens of my last specsavers pair so once I knew that I was def wearing them a lot I decided to try out the more expensive independent place.

My current pair were £450 for the frames + £250 for the lens + antiglare coating

They had an offer that time that you could buy a second pair half price if you bought them within 8 weeks so I got a second pair. Same brand but totally different style & colour

Watching with interest, mine are almost always around £400 to £500 even with every voucher I'm entitled to, blind as a bat, even

I love Lindberg glasses. I had rimless Lindberg glasses and needed to add the reading bit onto my glasses but the optician I use stopped stocking them so I ended up with rimmed glasses that I’m just ok about. But, I’d rather go back to Lindberg any day!

I am happy to pay for nice frames if I like them as I wear them a lot, however my most recent ones were from the £70 range buy 1 get one free from specsavers

Yes it was zoom meetings that made me decide to get nicer frames

I’m thinking of investing around 500 quid.

When I was younger, I could wear cheaper, more fashion-oriented ones, but my face needs a bit of quality now!

Looking at Lindberg, nice to see them mentioned here!

£0

Unless i have the extras that they try to upsell to you in the opticians.

NHS voucher covers up to a certain cost, specsavers do a range up to that cost.
Pick the nicest from that range, done.

www.specsavers.co.uk/offers/great-value-for-nhs-customers

Oh right mine need thinning and I don't get the NHS voucher and I don't get any choices about which lenses

Yes! They’re superb too. And the price includes Antiglare coatings as standard.

I would never be confident buying varifocals from an online glasses shop

My current glasses were £370. Frames were £170 and the lenses £200. They're green tortoishell, and I really love them.

The last time from Boots and I spent £1032 with a pair of sunglasses for half price. The glasses frames are LK Bennett and I think were about £160. The sunglasses Gucci and no idea but I love both.

The money stacks up due to varifocals, thinned lenses, 7.5 diopters, etc. Choice of frame is limited due to the strength of the prescription. The sunglasses were my first pair since 2004!

The last time I bought a pair of specs alone it was about £750 I think through an independent optician. I expect to replace about every three years but had to do so more quickly this time because the prescription changed and sit at three screens daily.

The only bit that hurt was having parted with £1032, I asked for a bag. I'd have been happy to give 10p but the response was "yeh, we don't have the bags in eye care, you'll have to queue up for one at the tills". I am afraid my response was "having just given you more than a thousand pounds, I don't think it will be me queueing at the till, do you? They didn't charge me 10p.

About £600 for varifocals with all the fandango coatings and thinning. I have a complex prescription and my eyes are not level so remote purchasing is not likely to give a good outcome. They last me about 2 years each time, unless DS throws a ball in my face 🤯 and breaks them.
I wear them all the time, so it is less than £1/day. I signed up to a contact lens scheme and get the fewest I can (one box/quarter) as I occasionally wear them for nights out. That made it much cheaper as I could get 50% off a pair of glasses each year.

I genuinely love mine and DH loves his too. He also has a pair of Oakleys and loves those too, but admits that the Lindbergs are more comfortable - you genuinely forget you’re wearing them.

We’ve had a less than positive experience on two separate occasions over the last couple of years with one of the new optometrists at the place we go to and as a result have switched all our DC to Specsavers. DH and I will stay though, purely because of our Lindbergs as they’re the only place around here that does them. I’ll be asking for a different optometrist when I go in for my next check up, but will stick with the practice because I can’t give up my Lindbergs.

I think it was about £1000 - extra thin varifocals with Lindeberg frames that I wear all day everyday. I don't spend much money on other clothes / jewellery but I get so much use out of my glasses that I spend what I need to get the right ones.

@WeeWigglet yes agree. I have my eyes tested every two years. I had to submit my latest prescription to Glasses Direct and confirm the date before they were OK to use.

I splashed out last year and spent £120 on frames. Usually I try to spend as little as possible as it costs me £600 for the lenses. I literally live in my specs as can't see beyond the end of my nose without them.

£800
Varifocals with fancy lenses

Worth every penny after seeing Specsavers make a dogs dinner on friends varifocals, which included telling her she needed to push or hold them up on her nose to be able to read in them🙄. As far as I could see, the varifocal bit wasn't aligned with her eyes properly so she was not actually looking through it when on in normal position.

Optical lab, choose frames that have the magnetic sunglasses, complex prescription that needs smart varifocals, high degree of thinning, £495! I go for bright frames, as wear glasses all the time. Doesn't matter where I go, I get hit for the prescription / thinning costs, so I go to a lab where the service is second to none and repairs / recoating included.

£1200 for two pairs - varifocal and transition lenses from an independent optician after a terrible experience at Specsavers.

I have varifocals and also have prescription sunglasses. I use an independent optician. Last time I had them both updated it cost me over £1,000 (for both) and the majority of that is for the lenses.

When I had my first set of varifocals around 10 years ago, at a different independent opticians I can remember them costing around £400 because of the kind of varifocals being something it would be easier for me to get used to than a cheaper lens. How much that was true I don't know, but I got used to them pretty quickly and was glad I'd paid the extra.

I think I paid about £700 for a pair a few years ago but most of that was for the varifocal lenses. I also have varifocal prescription sunglasses. I’d love a different pair to match different outfits but funds don’t allow.

Recently bought from specsavers and I was £450 - with a free pair of sunglasses. It’s the lenses, or rather the thinning of my jam jar lenses, that drives the cost up.

I’d love a really nice pair, but dread to think how much it would be!