How We Save (Tons of) Money on Eyeglasses

After having to pay over $300 for a pair of glasses for my husband we wanted a place to purchase affordable glases for everyone in our family (a family of 5).

Several weeks ago Jerah began to complain that words were blurry far away, so we had her eyes examined last month. Sure enough, the optometrist determined she had 20/70 vision and needed glasses.

After the exam we went directly to the eyeglasses department to try on frames. We weren't planning to purchase any glasses there, just see which styles looked good on Jerah's face. We snapped pictures of the frame styles we liked, then went home, got online, and ordered two pairs of glasses and frames from Zenni Optical. And the best part is that the two pairs of glasses cost less than the eye exam Jerah has just had…only $41 dollars total!

The glasses came in today, and Jerah was so excited! After she tried both pairs on, Jaden thought it's be fun to try them on too. He put the first pair on…and then slowly looked around the room in amazement. "Whoa, I didn't know things could look so clear!"

Apparently Jaden had not realized how poor his eyesight was. But trying on Jerah's glasses made it obvious to him that his eyesight is not 20/20.

He'll be seeing the optometrist in a couple weeks for his own eye exam, but in the meantime, Jaden will be wearing one of the pairs Jerah had ordered, especially since the blue pair that she ordered didn't fit her face as well as she'd hoped; but they fit Jaden's perfectly! The prescription is a low -1.00, and Jaden says he can see perfectly clear with the glasses, so we're thinking he'll probably be fine wearing them until we determine exactly what his prescription is.

How did we find Zenni Optical?

We found Zenni a few months ago when we were faced with having to spend $300 on a pair of glasses for Jeff. Three hundred dollars was just way too steep for us, so a fellow homeschooler recommended that we try Zenni Optical. They had just purchased a pair of glasses for their daughter from Zenni for only $8 and they were very pleased with them. Eight dollars? No way, I thought. That's too good to be true.

But when we went online to look at their prices and selection, we were amazed. They actually had a decent selection and we couldn't beat the prices. A little more research into the company did reveal several complaints against the company (like customers not receiving their order, poor customer service, etc.), but we also found numerous customer reviews that were glowing in support of Zenni.

We figured that we were willing to gamble if it was potentially going to save us $250! So we ordered a pair of titanium glasses for Jeff, spending a total of $50. The glasses came in a week later and we couldn't be more pleased. A few weeks later we ordered two more pairs (one was a pair of prescription sunglasses) and spent only another $50 total for both pairs. Those, too, came in within two weeks and were both very good glasses.

So far we've ordered from Zenni three times (a total of 5 pairs of glasses) and have been very pleased every time. I realize there are some Zenni customers that aren't as satisfied with them as we are, but I figure if we purchase the glasses with a credit card, and then Zenni doesn't send the glasses or something, we'll have some recourse through the credit card company. The price for glasses from Zenni just makes it to good to pass up!

2013 UPDATE: We have now ordered over 35 pairs of glasses from Zenni, and both my parents have ordered bifocals from Zenni several times. We are VERY happy customers!