How to Spend Less on Glasses and Contacts

Glasses
I recently ordered a pair of glasses and paid $21.95. Yes, they are prescription. $8.00 of that was the frame and lenses, $4.95 was shipping and $9.00 was because they had to be sent to the "you have really bad eyes" lab.

I ordered them online from Zenni Optical. Their frames start at $8.00 - and they're good frames, too! Mine are much sturdier than my previous frames that cost $100, 15 years ago! (which is probably the equivilant to $75 today.) And they are right-on with my prescription. The only two things that I don't really like is that my lenses are pretty thick and the frames are a little bigger than I'd like, but for $20, and as little as I wear my glasses out of the house, these things can be overlooked. And they took about 4 weeks to arrive. That was a tough wait.

To pick out my frames, I just went into the Walmart vision center and tried on about 50 pairs of glasses until I found one I liked. I took mental notes on it - what color, relative size, shape of the frame and what kind of frame they were (full rim, half rim, etc). If you do this, you may want to take a small ruler with you - one that has centimeters - to measure the dimensions of the frame, as Zenni Optical gives you all frame measurements in centimeters.

I first read about this site on Money Saving Mom - if you need more reassurance of their good quality than just my testament, read the comments there - you'll be pleasantly surprised!


Contacts
Don't let 1800Contacts fool you, they aren't always the lowest price!

I ordered my contacts through Vision Direct, used a coupon code from Retail Me Not to save an extra 20% plus got free shipping, and went though Ebates when I did the actual ordering to receive a rebate of 7% of my order. I only ordered 3 boxes and after discounts and my rebate, I paid $14.09 per box! Keep in mind that you'll receive a discount when you buy 8+ boxes.