For a variety of reasons, millions of people around the world wear contact lenses. However, while eyeglasses tend to be a one-off payment – typically once every one to two years – contacts are bought regularly. That means that the costs can quickly mount up. Whether you live in the US, in the UK (like me), or somewhere else, there are a few universal ways to saving money on contact lenses. So without further ado, here are three easy ways to save money on contact lenses which you can apply no matter where you are.
#1 Buying Contact Lenses Online
No guide to saving money would be complete without telling everyone to buy online! So as this one if the most obvious, we’ll cover this one first.
There are a multitude of stores where you can buy contact lenses online. In the UK, Lenstore is a leading supplier, and over in USA the most well-known is 1800contacts. These stores are typically able to offer much lower prices than physical stores which need to charge more in order to cover their higher costs.
At the same time, they tend to buy in larger volumes, which means their suppliers will give them a discounted price, which they pass on to you.
#2 Buying in Bulk
A lot of contact lens retailers sell contacts in various pack sizes. For example, daily contacts are often available in both packs of 30 and 90. If you were to calculate how much it costs per month, the 90 pack almost always works out cheaper.
At the same time, stores often offer multi-buy discounts, so if you buy four boxes or more, you’ll qualify for a bigger discount.
Of course, the disadvantage of this one is that it’s a bigger outlay. But in combination with buying contacts online, you can save a lot more annually.
When you buy in bulk, bear in mind your prescription end date. You don’t want to buy 6 months supply of contact lenses and then 3 months later get a different prescription and be left with 3 monthly supply of lenses which are no longer wearable.
#3 Ask Your Eye Doctor About Different Contact Lenses
This one could potentially save you a heck of a lot of money (depending on what contact lenses you wear already). To explain this one a bit more, bear with me through a little background info. You also shouldn’t switch contact lenses without talking to an eye doctor first.
There are a number of different types of contact lenses from contactlenses.co.uk: daily, monthly, toric, etc. Usually, there will be a daily version of a monthly lens, so the measurements are exactly the same. However, you will have been prescribed for one or the other.
The cost effectiveness of different contact lenses depends on how often you wear them. If you wear monthly contact lenses, they have to be thrown away after 30 days once opened (even if you only wear them once). So if you use monthly lenses, but don’t wear them frequently, daily lenses can save you a lot more money because they last longer.
On the other hand, if you wear daily contacts and wear them every day, you can save a lot of money by switching to monthly lenses.
If you want to work out which is most cost effective, think of the price of contact lenses as per day rather than per month or lens. Divide the cost of the contact lenses by the number of days you usually wear them and you’ll see which are more cost effective.
Again, before switching to different contacts, visit your eye doctor to get a new prescription to ensure you know which ones are suitable. Let him/her know that you’d like to try a daily or monthly lens and they should be able to help.
By employing these methods in combination, you’ll save a lot of money on your contact lenses, so you can spend money on something else (or actually save!).
Do you have any more money saving tips for contact lens wearers (or eye care)?
Contributed by Lenstore, Contact Lenses and Optical Advice
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