I had my last pair of glasses for years.

They were the kind with the half rims on top and the plastic string thing on the bottom. Once they got bent, there was no way to get them back to the way they were. They stayed bent and I couldn’t get the lens to sit correctly in the frame because the stupid string would pop out. Time for new glasses.

It had been years since my last eye exam, however, so I wanted to make sure I had an up-to-date prescription before getting new glasses. I don’t have health insurance, so I did a little research to find the best eye exam option for those of us without coverage.

I saw coupons and ads in the local newspapers, but they were either too expensive or had too many strings attached. For example, a $30 eye exam with the agreement that you have to buy your glasses from them. That just sounds like a trap when they don’t tell you how much glasses will cost. Glasses can easily be hundreds of dollars with nice frames and nice lenses. So I looked for a better choice.

Cheap, quality local eye exams are easy to find online

Turns out, Groupon is a great option for this! I don’t use them very often, but Groupon excels at the local stuff. I searched for ‘eye exam’ on Groupon.com and found a place 20 minutes away for $27, no strings attached or agreements I buy glasses from them. Perfect. I Googled ‘Groupon coupon’ (which is fun to say) and found a coupon to get 20% off my order. Even better! My favorite cashback website gives another 10% cashback (see my post for saving money with coupons and cashback). That’s way better than what I would have gotten from the coupons in the newspaper flyers.

I called them up and scheduled an appointment in the next couple days. When I arrived for my appointment, they didn’t try to trick me with any extra costs or fees. The optometrist was very professional, nice, and dilated my eyes for no extra cost.

He was passionate about being an optometrist and launched into a conversation where he told me how excited he was to be helping people and all the different ways to see the health of other parts of the body through inspecting the eye. It was pleasant and interesting. He was an eye nerd, exactly the type of person I want to examine my eyes. Overall, it was the best eye exam I’ve had! And it cost about $20, so I think it was also the cheapest eye exam I’ve ever had. I got my new prescription on the way out and was ready to find to get my new glasses from.

Buying glasses online is quick and way, way cheaper

My brother recommended a glasses website. It’s super easy to get your glasses online. You fill out the prescription which is only six numbers or so, and then pick your frames. They had a feature to virtually try on my glasses, which actually worked well and gave me a pretty good idea of how they would look.

I found glasses and sunglasses with the lenses I wanted for $240. I found a coupon for $100 off and used my cashback website for another 15% in cashback, bringing the total after cashback to $119, just under 50% off! They made the lenses and shipped pretty quickly, maybe 4 days. The glasses actually took longer to ship than the sunglasses. They fit pretty well and were definitely comfortable. The plastic bridge of the glasses cause them to slip down, a problem I’m remedying with a product I didn’t know existed until I needed it. It should solve the slipping problem, according to the reviews.

Results

I was pretty happy with the whole experience, and anyone who’s had broken glasses knows how nice it is to have a working pair again. I’d definitely recommend getting your eye exam on Groupon. It really worked for me. The glasses feel really sturdy, much more so than my last pair. The slipping is the only issue I hope will be solved soon.

The prescription sunglasses are perfect. They’re darker than my last ones due to the mirrored lenses. I was always squinting on sunny days, sometimes even with my old sunglasses on, but these new ones are great. I’d recommend you get the mirrored lenses if sunglasses usually aren’t dark enough for you either.

All in all, buying glasses and eye exams have gotten cheaper and easier in recent years. Try it next time you need a pair!