A pair of +3.5 reading glasses from Poundland works for me. OK I can't see anything more than 4 feet away with them on but they are cheap and effective.
i use the helping hands too but dont bother to much with the arms as they just get in the way and just use the magniffier.. you could of course by a bigger better magnifier and stick it in one of the helping hands grips or get one of these