3 Ways to Save Money on School Pictures

It’s that time of year again.  I have already been hit up for school pictures as well as soccer pictures.  And I have a confession to make.

I caved.

Yes, I have now shelled out a grand total of $75 for school pictures. $29 for each of the kids for one of the smallest packages, then $17 for Buddy’s soccer pictures.

Yeah. I know.

Honestly though, I could have just gotten the class/team pictures.  I do think those are worthwhile-I love looking back at my old 2nd grade photos and seeing the clothes, and what everyone looked like back then.  Then I could have implemented some other cost saving measures to get something very similar to a school photo for the kiddos~but it became a time vs money issue for me.

We have the money so I decided to go ahead and just purchase them.

But I feel guilty.

So what else could I have done? What other options are out there if it really just isn’t in the budget?  Here are 3 ways to save money on school pictures.

#1-Take it yourself.

I mean really-which of these do you like more:

I think mine is just as nice as the school photo. I could have done a similar shot to the school photo of him against a solid background.

Need help?  Check out this article over at “Love to Know” with tips on Taking School Pictures. For even more tips, here is a great list of 19 Portrait Tutorials at Digital Photography School.

#2-Find someplace cheaper.

Many retailers and big box stores have small photo studios that ALWAYS seem to be running some sort of deal.  A quick we search brought me up a couple of  examples.  JC Penney had free sitting, an 8X10, 2~5×7’s, 4~3 1/2×5’s and 16 wallets for $7.99.  Walmart had a similar package.

Be careful when using these services.  Typically the FIRST POSE that you say you like (and at Walmart you can’t go back to a previous when you say you don’t like it-they erase it) is the one that gets the package price.  They frequently will take subsequent shots.

First: Make sure that you are not going to be charged a sitting fee for those other shots.

Second: Resist the temptation! The other shots will be SOOOO cute. You will want them all. The photographer will try to upsell you to other packages, add in other shots etc.  Even when you go to pick up your photos they will have some of the other shots in there and you will want to buy them because they are right there, in hard copy. THIS WILL COST YOU.  Resist!

#3-Skip the pictures.

I know, it is practically heresy to say this.  You could just skip the photos all together. If you don’t have them taken, they won’t cost you money.

Just writing this article has inspired me. I am going to attempt to take my own version of the kids school pictures and Buddy’s soccer picture, and then I will post them side by side and see what you all think!

Clutter Control with the Flylady on Frugal Coast2Coast

Need help with clutter control and organization? Can’t seem to stay on top of your life and all it entails? Our next show is for you!  This coming Monday, September 14th at 8:30 pm EST Frugal Coast2Coast will have special guest expert & author Marla Cilley-better known to her thousands of fans as “The FlyLady“.  We will be talking about “Clutter Control and the Flylady System”.

Lynnae and I are just so excited to talk with Marla again that we can barely stand it!  We both had read her book and implemented portions of her system (note to self, get back on the Flylady system) well before meeting her online.  She is a fabulous and fun lady-the show is going to just fly by! (ha ha-fly, get it?)

You are not going to want to miss this show live, but if you MUST. . .just remember it will be available as a podcast for your future listening enjoyment! You can always find our episode player on the “Frugal Coast2Coast” blog, as well as the show notes (links mentioned on air etc) for each and every show.

While you are over at Frugal Coast2Coast don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter.  This is a joint Frugal Upstate & Being Frugal.net newsletter which will be published once a month.  It will not only include the best of both of our blogs, but also NEW material not seen on either blog.  To add to the excitement we will do a random prize drawing each month from among the newsletter subscribers.  You don’t want to miss out on all of that! So even if you already subscribe to me through email, you need to hurry on over and sign up for the Joint Frugal Coast2Coast Newsletter as well!

Dehydrate Herbs in Your Car!

This one falls in the “honey, are you crazy” realm for poor patient Yankee Bill.  There are just some thing I do in the course of following the frugal path that he sighs and shakes his head over. Using my car as a dehydrator to dry herbs (lovage) is one of those things.

You see, our lovage plant (which I use contantly in cooking & adore) has been reaching it’s full potential. That is to say it has grown to almost 5 feet tall.  Planting it right next to the back door has made it extremely accessible and convenient for cooking-however hubs sense of aesthetics has been marred by it’s somewhat, um, weedy straggly appearance.

Hey, I said it was a very useful plant, I never said it was beautiful.

He asked, very graciously, that I give it a haircut.  Although it wasn’t bothering me in the least, some things you do for the sake of one you love.  I gave it a trim.

Now my frugal soul (aka packrat tendancies) kicked in. Although I knew that the lovage plant post trim was still way more herb than I’d ever use in a season-I really, really hated the idea of throwing out perfectly good leaves.

So what to do? I have read that you can freeze them in water. I know last fall I froze some the lazy way-just cut off a bunch of stems and threw them in a freezer bag. Those were fine in stews etc, but had that slimy watery texture. Not really pleasant to add to a potato salad.

That’s when I remembered one of those random frugal ideas I had read about but never gotten around to trying.  Using your car as a dehydrator!  I know that sounds crazy, but think about it. . .how hot does YOUR car get sitting in the summer sun. . .

I ran down to the basement and grabbed one of the large screens I saved* when we had all the windows replaced a year ago.  I gave it a good scrub and sat it against the deck to dry.

Then I cut all the good leaves off of the Lovage stems I had trimmed. I was going to try doing something with the stems-in fact kept them in the kitchen for a day before I decided that was just too much and composted them.

Then I took the screen and placed it in my car.  It was just long enough to balance on the front headrests and the back seat.

I spread the leaves on the screen. They completely filled it up, with some overlap.  That worried me a bit, but I knew they would shrink as they dried. Although I’ve read some articles that say you should leave the windows cracked for air flow, I left mine all the way up.

I checked the herbs at the end of the day, and there was significant shrinkage, but they were still limp and pliable.  So I decided to leave them in for another day**.

It proceeded to either rain or be very humid for the next 3 days. Now I didn’t want to take them out of the car in the rain, and the times when it wasn’t raining it seemed like it was really windy. So I just left them there! The first day I didn’t drive anywhere. The second I did but just left the screen balanced there. The third day I had to drive with the kids in the car so I carefully moved the screen to the cargo area of the vehicle.

The car did smell pretty strongly, but pleasantly, of dried lovage not only during the drying process, but also for several days afterwards.

When the drying was complete I brought the leaves inside and placed them in a Gallon sized zippered baggie.

Hmm. That is pretty bulky . . .

What if I just sort of crushed it up, right there in the bag?

There! Much better. Now all I have to do is put it in a container and stick it in the spice cupboard! Viola!

I wonder what else I can dehydrate in the car? What do you dehydrate? Do you use an electric dehydrator or some other method?

For a great article on dehydrating check out “Dehydrating Vegetables” by Pat Veretto

*Note: I try really hard not to over-do when saving things-although Yankee Bill would say I do NOT succeed on that particular front! I showed great restraint and only saved 4 window screens. . .

**Note: It was only about 70 out. If you had hotter weather I’m sure it would be done in a day.

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