You need your glasses to function. You need them to safely drive a vehicle, read your emails or even see what’s two feet in front of you. You’re afraid that one day, you’ll misplace or break your glasses, and then you won’t be able to function until you buy yourself a brand-new pair.
Don’t wait for this emergency to happen. Prepare for it. Read ahead to find out how.
Buy Spares:
It’s always a good idea to have a spare pair of glasses around. That way, if your primary pair of glasses disappears or breaks, you can grab the spare pair sitting in your bedroom. You won’t have to fumble around your home for too long.
You don’t have to spend a fortune on your spare pair of glasses. They can be fairly cheap and flimsy, as long as they match your current prescription. Their sole purpose is to be your backup in an emergency. They don’t have to be perfect; they just have to get the job done.
You don’t have to leave your house to buy a cheap pair of glasses. You can purchase them online! Plenty of online glasses retailers use AR tools to help you “try on” glasses digitally so that you can browse their selection from the comfort of your own living room. All you have to do is upload a photo of your face and then see how the frames look on you. Pick the ones that suit you and your budget best and then have them shipped over to your address.
Keep Older Glasses:
You might not need to buy a spare pair of glasses! If you’ve been wearing glasses for years, just keep your old pairs as emergency backups instead of throwing them away the moment that you purchase a new pair.
Ideally, you should do this when your prescription has remained the same over recent years. If the prescription is slightly different, you still might be fine. Wearing the older prescription is likely better than not wearing any glasses at all. However, you should avoid doing anything risky, like operating heavy machinery, until you get a proper replacement.
If your vision has changed a lot in recent years, you shouldn’t try this. It’s not worth giving yourself a headache. You should just purchase a spare pair of glasses in your current prescription.
Get Contact Lenses:
A lot of people who wear contact lenses on a regular basis still have a pair of glasses that they can wear when they can’t put in their lenses. If you are someone who mostly wears glasses, you can do the opposite! Keep a box of contact lenses and a bottle of contact lens solution sitting in your medicine cabinet, just in case you can’t use your glasses.
Learning how to insert contact lenses can be tricky, so don’t leave your first attempt for an emergency situation. There are plenty of useful tutorials and tips for putting in contacts. Practice will make perfect!
Prepare Your Finances for Urgent Replacements:
A new pair of glasses could put a dent in your bank account if you’re not prepared to pay for it. After all, your healthcare plan may not offer any coverage for vision care, including prescription glasses. You’ll want to be prepared to cover the bill another way.
If you happen to have a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) or Health Savings Account (HSA), you could use your savings to pay for your new pair of glasses right away. If you don’t have these tax-advantaged accounts, you should have an emergency fund sitting in a savings account. You can withdraw the necessary amount from your personal emergency fund to get your glasses immediately.
What if you don’t have enough savings? In that case, you may want to borrow funds to handle this emergency expense. You could go to a website like CreditFresh to see whether you qualify for an online loan. With an approved online loan, you might be able to pay for your new pair of glasses and get your vision back in order quickly. After dealing with the emergency, you could follow a steady repayment plan for the online loan and give back what you borrowed.
Your glasses aren’t just a fashion accessory. You need them to drive, to work, to read and do so much in your daily life. So, make sure that you have backup plans in case you lose your main pair.