Pictures & Photos

Since my parents have the girls this weekend, I've had a little time to do some scrapbooking. But since I hadn't done it in a while, it was time to organize my photos and then get them printed so I can scrap. Of course, one key to saving money is staying organized, whether grocery shopping with a list, scrapbooking with preselected photos, or researching product costs.

The cheapest place I can find to print photos is SNAPFISH. You buy a prepaid plan, which is good for two years and get 250 photos at 8 cents each.

Option one is to take your camera card to a store and get immediate prints - most expensive.
Option two is to take your camera card to the store and get one-hour prints - next expensive.
Option three is to upload selected photos to a store site and pick them up later - getting better.
Option four is to upload selected photos to a website and have them mailed to you - even better.
Option five is to wait for a free shipping sale at Snapfish and print your photos - cheapest!!

(Just to share my research, Shutterfly has prepaid packages as low as 10 cents each but you have to buy a huge number - and without a plan, the prints are 15 cents each, almost twice as much as Snapfish. The advantage is that you upload online and you can have them printed at Target - but you cannot use the prepaid prints for that, as they tell you in teeny, tiny print. And since you know what a CostCo junkie I am, they charge 13 cents each to print out and pick up in the store - still not as good as Snapfish. And gas to the store and back probably equals the few-dollar shipping charges online sites use.)

As I said above, you have to stay organized. One advantage with a prepaid plan is that you have to take the time to upload your photos, so you don't just hit select~ALL and print all your photos, thereby wasting SO many pictures that don't go into an album or scrapbook. The other advantage to the prepaid plan is the cost - the pictures from Snapfish are just about 1/2 the cost of other places and in some instances 1/3 the cost! Now if you need pictures in a hurry, CostCo or SAMS is probably the way to go. But again, if you are organized and just print here and there, you will have your photos printed and ready to scrap (or file) next time your girlfriends call.

Since I like to scrap, I know this bit of research has helped me - I hope it helps you as well!!