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Friday, May 28, 2010

For the Middle-Aged Only: Clics

We interrupt this blog on frugality for a product endorsement. Read on only if you wear reading glasses. I have recommended this product to many in real life. And this product has saved me scads of money, so it is related to frugality.


When I was in my late-thirties, I was on a panel on "Women and Tenure" put together by the great Emily Toth aka Ms. Mentor. As I recall. there were two other English teachers and one Spanish teacher. As each began to speak, she put on her reading glasses. And I thought, That is my future.

Indeed, several years later, right on schedule. I needed reading glasses. I can't read at all without them. Readers are cheap in and of themselves, especially when compared to the cost of prescription glasses. For the horrifying cost of those, see Funny About Money's post on her stylish new specs.

Even cheap readers can get expensive when you keep losing them. Sometimes they slip out of those around the neck things. Or fall off your head. Honestly, I was going through about 3 pairs a month. When I traveled, I would pack numerous extras in the event of loss or breakage.

Then I got Clics. I know this sounds like an infomercial. Honestly, I would DO an infomercial. I've worn one pair for 3 years. My back-up pair is still in its plastic.

These are featured on several tv shows, my students tell me. If you don't know what they are, here is the Amazon pic.

They go around the neck and click together with a magnetic front. The only downside is that I have to remember to tell my students about them the first day of class or they shriek in horror when I click them together.

These are a huge money saver if you wear readers. And if you don't wear readers: YOU WILL. OR WORSE. They sell them here and there, usually in boutiques, and they even come in red.

6 comments:

Duchesse said...

Put simply, your eyes are not identical and each eye ages differently. Off the rack readers do not provide for this variation. Some people with think they are doing OK with generic readers, but many of us benefit from calibrated lenses right for each eye. (Full disclosure, Dad was an eye surgeon.) Take care of your eyes- save money on frames but get the best lenses.

Frugal Scholar said...

@Duchesse-I met one of LA's top eye surgeons, and he said the readers are fine. If they work, they work. (Surgeon said that). I think ideas about glasses have changed. I got glasses in 4th grade (doc was father of a classmate: "I hear you are a good student. You won't be a good student if you don't wear these."), wore them through college, and then lost a pair and never got another. I never really needed them for reading and pass my eye exam every time I renew my license. Apparently glasses were overprescribed in my childhood!

Shelley said...

I have worn glasses off and on since I was 8 years old. I've mainly worn contact lenses since I was 16 and that was fine. For the past 5 or so years I've needed reading glasses when wearing my contacts. I found some pockets on string to wear around my neck (one in black and one in brown) and found they were also useful for carrying a pen or a lipstick as well. The cheap reading glasses have done fine for me so far, but I do keep spare copies in my sewing bag and next to my chair in the living room. If I'm doing a great deal of close hand sewing, I switch over to my prescription glasses so I can take them off or slide them down my nose (just like my Mom did) to really see what I'm doing. The potential loss of that excellent very close vision is what makes me turn my back on laser surgery, else I expect I'd go for that.

Funny about Money said...

That's interesting! I'll have to check those out for use with contacts.

When I was wearing the contacts all the time, I'd buy readers at Costco, three to the package. Collect enough of them, and you can leave them laying around in places where you're likely to need them.

My contact lens specialist gave me a monocular prescription, which works pretty well--a helluva lot better than bifocal or progressive glasses, that's for sure! But I get really lazy about contacts; it's a nuisance to be poking pieces of plastic in your eyes all the time, and you can't wear them swimming.

mette said...

I have seen "clics", but I have to have correction near and far, so I use wear my prescription glasses or contact lenses for special events. Both work fine for me.

Duchesse said...

May I say you also met a "high end jeweler" (your term) who advised you not to give jewelers pieces b/c they got lost? I sought a second opinion, then a third. My eye surgeons are not in agreement with yours.