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Creatively Frugal Portraits
What creatively frugal methods do you use to save money on professional
quality portraits?
"I have one word savings for that
one: WALMART They take excellent pictures. Around school time
they offer some great prices for a lot of pictures. My family is
small but my husband's is large. We also use pictures for holiday
gifts, but we always get more then we need in the basic package.
I just paid $5.88 for 1-10x13,3- 8x10, 3-4x6, 4-5x7, 24-wallets,
16-minis..." ~ Debbie
"What we have done for almost 17
years for school pictures for our 5 children was to take their
pictures at Walmart. We did use our homeschool protrait
package one year, but we didn't think the pictures were that
great, so we went back to Walmart. Our kids are also in our
homeschool basketball program, and we take not only individual
pictures of each one (once or twice a year), but we also take a
group picture of them in their basketball jerseys together (they
love these pictures). In our area we have 4 Wal-marts within a
30 miles radius, so we can take pictures often, by using
different Walmarts and not just one (they have a rule: one package
per phone number at a time, or until the pictures are back). We have
2 girls who have already graduated, and I insist on a new picture of
them at least once a year. We get enough pictures for our family and
for their friends from $5.99 - $8.99 a package, plus extra
pictures for scrapbooking that look beautiful. We also take
Christmas pictures of our kids at Walmart and send in our
cards. We may seem really frugal, but it has been a great investment
in quality pictures." ~ Shelly
"I have rarely ever bought the
school pictures. I have found that they are not very
flattering pictures of my four children. Either their hair is
messed up or their clothes are in disarray. Instead I take them to
the local discount store and have their portraits done there usually
for the $6.99 special with no sitting fee for a package of 30
or so pictures in various sizes. That way I am in control or
what they look like and what pose they are in and the children still
have pictures to hand out to their friends and at a much more
reasonable price." ~ Marie
"I have 3 children
ages 20,18, and 7. When my oldest was in about third grade I
realized that I liked the school portraits, but if I went to the
local portrait studios in and around the area I live in, I could get
the portraits from the poses that I chose, be present at the time
the pictures were taken, and pay the same amount of money. Needless
to say, I have not purchased school pictures in many years. The
studios I go to are JCPenney and Sears. My children still have their
pictures taken on picture day at school so they can be in the class
photo or in the yearbook in junior high and high school.
"I have 3 children - 1 out of school, 1 in high school and 1 in
elementary school - so I have dealt with this problem for years. For
a while I had 2 children in 2 different schools and 1 still home
with me. The school pictures were often on 2 different days and
sometimes 2 different photographers and I still wouldn't have
pictures of my youngest daughter who wasn't in school yet. I
was never really happy with how the school pictures turned out
either. The photographer had so many children to photo that they
couldn't really take the time to wait for the perfect picture and
the packages were never quite what I needed -- either way too many
pictures or not enough. I've found that it is less expensive
to skip the school pictures and take my 3 to a department store for
a group/individual pictures. You can choose the package, the background and the pictures you want and
you can personalize them more than school pictures." ~ Tammie
"Want to save money on school portraits? Don't buy
them -- any of them. The photographer lines up 20 kids at a time,
says 'Smile,' snaps, then the next kid is up. School pictures are
terrible, and my kids always get theirs taken right after a sweaty gym class.
I have my girls' pictures taken in the summer at JCPenney and make
sure to save enough wallets for them to trade at school. Join the
Portrait Club at Penney's for $30 for two years and you don't pay
any sitting fees. Then use the coupons (large packages for $8-$10 in
summer, a little more in the fall). I never pay more than $10 for a
portrait package. We have enough wallets to trade and enough 8x10 (1
or 2), 4x6 (2) and 3.5x5 (4) photos for us, grammas, aunts and
uncles.
I only give studio pictures to the kids' grammas and my
and my husbands' siblings. You can go broke trying to
buy enough for neighbors, friends and great-aunts-once- removed. If
it's really that important that everyone see the studio pictures,
you can pay $4.99 at Penney's for them to e-mail the pictures to you
and you can e-mail them to friends.
Sears, Wal-Mart, Target and other discount studios
have similar prices to Penney's. I've just found Penney's to be
easiest to work with.
If you have (or can borrow) a digital camera, you can
also take cute pictures of your kids at the park,
etc., and upload the pictures to
yorkphoto.com. Then for 99 cents (plus reasonable shipping) you
can order
little sheets of 4 wallet-size photos; you cut them up
and they are perfect for kids to trade. For $4 each my
kids have enough pictures to trade. The cheapest
school portrait package at our school is $14. When I
did this last year we got so many compliments on the
pictures; both my daughters had their picture taken
with their brand-new baby brother. The photos were
unique and didn't break the bank." ~ Catherine
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"To save money on portraits and make
sure I get what I want, I don't buy school or other pre-paid or
packaged portraits. I have a portrait club membership where I pay one
fee and then have no sitting fees for two years. I like Sears,
but J.C. Penney's has the same kind of plan. If I am needing a picture
with all four kids, that saves a bundle (usually $8-$10) on sitting
fees per child. They have a large package with all kinds of sizes. With
four kids, there is usually only one where they all look great.
If I want individual shots or more than one pose, I can pay by the
sheet. It is more, but I can get just the sizes and poses I
want. Just take in a list of who needs photos and sizes.
Don't forget to get extras for your child's scrapbook!" ~ Dionne
"I always dreaded school
picture day for the reason you mentioned -- how to pick the
package that provided the most photos at the least cost.
Finally, I decided not to purchase the pictures anymore.
Usually the photographer the school uses provides a student
picture to the school to use for their files and yearbook.
So I began taking my children to Walmart (during a
non-holiday season) to get pictures taken to give to family
members. I haven't paid over $3.88 for a packet yet
and when I take them in, I let the photographer know that
they are school pictures so I don't get one of those cartoon
scenes behind them. The packets aren't quite the sizes I
would have normally chosen so I do have some leftovers but
for $3.88 that's okay with me. Plus once you get on the
mailing list, they send you the reminder card when they will
be in the store and they offer $1.00 off! $2.88 -- I
definitely cannot pass that up." ~ Rhonda
"My children go to
public school and have their pictures taken to be used in
the yearbooks. But I never buy the pictures, they're
grossly overpriced and never very flattering. Every
fall I take the whole family to WalMart and have a family
portrait taken, plus individuals of each child and one of
my husband and me together. The cost is less than
just one school portrait package and the pictures are
better since the photographer takes time to make each of
us smile." ~ Penny
"I cringe every year when
my children bring home the portrait envelopes with those
very expensive prices. The school always adds that they get
a small percentage when we order them. I'm sorry! I can't
afford them! It costs about $40 for one child. I have 3!! So
last year I didn't have them taken. This year I am taking
them to our local Walmart and having their portraits done.
They cost $6.35 total for a bunch of pictures, so that costs
me a total of a little over $19 for all three of our
children as opposed to $120. AND the other great thing about
these are...you can approve them before they are sent off to
be developed at the lab. The school pictures you get are as
is. Granted you can send them back and have a retake, but
what if they come back not satisfactory next time also? So
all in all, Wal-mart is the best for our family!" ~
Brenda
"I go to Yuen Lui every January and July for their 'children's
special' which is $39.99 (for one child and a bit more for
each additional child) for 1- 8x10, 2- 4x6's and 8
wallets. This is enough photos for our immediate family
and you can always purchase more if you need them. The
quality is unmatched and the photos last forever and don't
yellow with time as the discount store photos tend to.
They have sales almost every month, check it out: www.yuenluistudio.com
~ Suzie
"We do not purchase school
portraits because the packages are so expensive, and the parents
have no choice of which poses should be printed. We take
our kids to Wal-Mart Portrait Studios every fall and have them do a
group and individual portraits. We can purchase one package of the
group portrait for the advertised $4 or $5, then purchase a disk
with the rest of the poses in digital format for another $12 or so.
Since we have 5 children, this turns out to be less expensive in the
long run, especially since I can e-mail the pictures to my friends
and family and save on postage. If I absolutely want a printed
portrait from the disk, I use WalMart.com's Photo Center. They
can print all sizes of photos from my digital files, and ship them
to me, or I can go pick them up." ~ Rebecca
"I have found that Walmart has the best deal on
portraits, often $3.88 or $5.88 for a big
package including all sizes from 10x13 to wallet
sizes. We homeschool too, and do this
every fall for 'school pictures' that
we use for Christmas-time enclosures in our
Christmas cards." ~ Sharon
Editor's Note: Thanks to everyone who took the time to share
his or her ideas!
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