This is what happens when you’re dating a medical resident: he or she gets a day off (finally) and then, because there hasn’t been a spare second to plan, whatever happens that day is usually rushed and according to whim.
So, when Dan announced to me, without warning, that he wanted new eyeglasses last Saturday, we made an appointment at LensCrafters and loaded ourselves into the car within minutes. And then, while we were driving, he shielded his eyes from the oppressive summer sun and announced that he wanted new sunglasses too.
I like to do nice things for Dan and cut him breaks when his work affords him so few, but that can be difficult when I don’t know what we’ll be doing any given day until the last minute. Dan was super-excited with our shopping plan, but I was quietly cringing at the thought of all the LensCrafters mailers I’d beheld throughout my life without ever getting a chance to use. I could only hope that, somewhere out there, a savvy SnipSnapper had snipped the exact deals we’d need for our spur-of-the-moment purchase. So, while Dan negotiated traffic, I used my iPhone to navigate the route to the mall, while selecting and excavating eye-wear coupons on SnipSnap.
Our LensCrafters in White Marsh, Maryland offered us a “Great Day In-store” promotion right off the bat: 50% off prescription lenses with the purchase of regularly priced frames. I used SnipSnap to snip a coupon for an additional twenty-five dollars off a pair of prescription eyeglasses with the coupon code “573501.” This coupon specified it could be used with other offers, but only at the rate of one per customer. So I had to find another coupon to take some of the weight off the sunglasses, especially since we decided Dan couldn’t live without an expensive pair of Ray-Bans, which required even more expensive, specialized lenses.
I snipped a 40% off coupon for prescription sunglasses. The coupon was a photo advertisement with no code, so I was a little hesitant it wouldn’t work as well – especially because this one was the big saver. But I kept my cool and played confident that everything would work according to plan. Dan and I had a lot more fun selecting frames and lenses knowing that we were getting more for less money. The experience felt less like a money-sucking chore and much more like a game show in which smarts and strategy could help us win big.
The stakes were high when we sat down with an optician to make our final decisions. We had no problem redeeming the twenty-five dollar off coupon. All I had to do was hand over the code. We were off to a great start! Especially because our optician seemed totally comfortable with mobile coupons. But I was still worried about those sunglasses – I knew we wouldn’t feel comfortable buying them without the forty percent savings, and Dan was already so attached to the pair he’d picked out that I couldn’t bear to see them part.
“Oh, I’ve also got this 40% off coupon,” I offered the optician like it was no big deal. Turns out, it wasn’t. He applied the discount to both the lenses and frames AND applied the twenty-five dollar off coupon we used for the eyeglasses to the sunglasses too! After two SnipSnap coupons, the price of Dan’s sunglasses dwindled from $484.95 to $243.98, a total SnipSnap savings of $218.98! And, because we were able to combine the twenty-five dollar coupon with the in-store promotion on the eyeglasses, we saved $162.50 on the complete pair, bringing our totally savings for the day to $381.48!
So here is the great news: LensCrafters does accept mobile coupons! Many can be combined with in-store offers for greater savings, and (in my case) “one per customer” means “one per pair, per costumer.” LensCrafters also offers other non-coupon ways to save. You can earn a 30% discount with either AAA or AARP memberships, but these discounts cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers or coupons, so, in most cases, it pays way more to mobile coupon.
If you’re planning a visit to LensCrafters, make sure you visit their offers page to check out current in-store savings!
Have you ever purchased prescription eyeglasses or sunglasses using mobile coupons? What were your savings? Is LensCrafters the best place to score a SnipSnap deal on eye-wear? Email me at liz@snipsnap.it with your stories, tips, and tricks!
