Contacts are 1000% worth it.
I started wearing glasses in second grade. My prescription is - let's just say, bad. Bad enough that I'm probably not a candidate for lasik.
I started asking my parents for contacts when I was 12. At the time, we had an ophthalmologist who was hyper-conservative. He absolutely refused to prescribe contacts for anyone under 16, because he insisted that no one under the age of 16 was capable of handling the clean-and-disinfect regimen. Never mind that I'm highly intelligent - I was only 12, and therefore dumb as a box of rocks, as far as he was concerned.
By the time I was 15, my parents and I had a new ophthalmologist, and she was more than willing to prescribe contacts for me.
At the time, I was on the track team, and it's kind of hard to run and push up your glasses at the same time.
Do I spend more on contacts than I would on glasses? Yes, if for no other reason than that contact lens wearers do still need a pair of glasses on hand. But I'm more than willing to spend the extra money to be able to see more clearly and look like someone who doesn't need coke-bottle glasses.