I tried progressive lenses once, and found it a miserably unhappy experience. Whatever I wanted to look at was always in the wrong focus, and the reading part at the bottom was maddeningly incredibly tiny. They say to give it a month to get used to them, so maybe I didn't give it long enough -- I abandoned them after only a few days. I switched to wearing my reading glasses for looking at anything nearby, and going glasses-free for anything distant. That was years ago, and now my distance vision is a little bit worse than it was then, so I really should be wearing some kind of mixed-vision glasses, but after the last experience I am not eager to try that again.

It didn't occur to me to ask if the place I got the glasses had a "that didn't work, let's try something else without charging a fortune" policy. Thanks to Kareina for mentioning that they might. Also, my current prescription reading glasses are from Zenni Optical, so they cost me $26, which is a whole lot better than what opticians usually charge.

Anyway, I hope you can work out a way for bifocals to work well for you!