In the past few weeks I've gotten some mail that made me think a bit more again how I've looked at the savings in my own eyeglasses purchases. To be sure, there are more than a few people in the forums who've "reinvested" their savings in additional glasses. It's easy to do, especially if you've got a flex spending account (FSA for all of you human resources folks out there) set up.

But what of those of us who only need one pair?

What are some of the other things we spend or even (gasp!) save the money we didn't spend on glasses? Mine melts right into the shrinking budget in a million different ways, but wouldn't it be somehow more satisfying to identify where it went? Here are a few things to consider spending your savings on.

I used to figure that if I got two years out of a pair of glasses I was doing pretty well and that a new pair would cost over $300.

It got me to thinking. In a sputtering economy, things like these can have a big effect on personal economic well being. Let's use that $300 as a baseline for a typical pair of eyeglasses bought at LensCrappers and $30 for an average cost of a pair of online glasses. It's like a 90% off coupon (on the whole package - versus those silly frame coupons with which they routinely stuff my mailbox).

So here we have it
$270.

What does it buy?

• 4 tanks of gas.
• Broadband internet for almost 7 months.
• A year of Netflix.
  
• An overflowing cart at the grocery store.
• 6 new bras.
• Two trips out to the fine dining establishment of your choice for you and your significant other (hold the champagne)
• A Nintendo Wii (for the kids) with an extra Wiimote. Burn off some calories too!
  
• That brake job on your Cavalier that you've been putting off.
• A warm winter coat.
• More than a year's worth of Gamefly (again for the kids).
• Sweaters for the entire family (you can now drop the thermostat a few degrees starting in November). SAVE EVEN MORE MONEY!
  
• Save it. $10.80 interest in a year @ 4%

What other things can you point out?

Most of the eyeglasses-related email I get has a lot to do with the economy. It seems to have ramped up a bit over the past few months. Just this week I got three emails with socio-economic themes.

One of the emails I got was from an electrician struggling mightily to keep his going. He did a little math and reinvested the savings into big oil the business.

"I usually spend almost $600 on my bifocals. I just spent $89. I have a fleet of six Econoline vans to fill every day or two. Your site just saved me a day or two of fuel expense with enough left over for lunch and dinner. Did I mention, that the glasses are perfect?"

Another came from a single mother -- and I get these a lot. Her daughter broke her glasses (again) and even with the "deals" she thought she was getting at her optometrist, she was going to have to add to her debt to get it taken care of before school started.

"My cube-mate showed me your site and said, 'one of these place might have kids glasses.' I was blown away!!! ...I able to get her glasses replaced for $40! Budgeting for the next time they break or get lost won't be such a huge problem."

The last one came from a friend who recently lost his job. He went fishing with his dad a few weeks ago and lost his prescription sunglasses over the side of the boat. He was planning on doing without -- having far too much self-respect to go for the traditional old-guy clip-on flip-up.

"And then I remembered your site! ...skipped the polarization on these, but $24? Even I can afford that! They turned out great. Thank you, Thank you!"

I've heard grumblings about how this effects our economy negatively. All of this "buying eyeglasses from China" business. Here's my take. Yes, many of the frames are made in China. How does that differ from most of the frames you buy in the store? Not in any meaningful way -- except you're not going to get a big (I'd argue horrendous) "DG" emblazoned on the temple.

Additionally, what is often forgotten in the equation is what happens to the money saved by not overspending by a factor of ten. It's not flushed down a toilet. It goes into our lives in such meaningful ways. Perhaps two or three trips to the grocery store for a family of 5 (I've got three kids) -- keeping the money local rather than in the pocket of some Italian billionaire.

We Americans aren't exactly known for our prowess with saving money, heck our entire economy is built upon us spending everything we have and more.

I'm curious what people have bought with money they'd earmarked for overly expensive eyeglasses.

Me? To give some perspective, I've purchased five pairs of eyeglasses for a grand total of $206 -- easily less than half of what I'd have spent on one pair had I not searched for a better way. That's more than a guy needs, but I'm still researching this thing.

I was able to stay closer to budget over the holidays.

Anyone bought anything neat? Given to charity? Added or started a savings account?

Tell us your story.