For years, I have been slightly obsessive about taking my children in for new pictures each year for their birthdays. Now that our oldest is twelve years old, he’s not such a fan of having his picture taken any more, so we usually let the spring photo shoot at school count for his! ha My two littles still very much enjoy being in front of the camera though, so for their sake I keep the tradition going… ahem… ok, maybe for my sake a little too.
Since most of my high dollar quality photographer friends live many miles away from me now, I returned to my trusty standby – J C Penny Portrait Studio. Just this week, I took our little guy in for his four year pictures. {It was painful to realize and admit that he is now that old!} I was quite pleasantly surprised by the upgrades to JCP‘s Studio since our last visit! Portable cameras now, which means no more posing the children in one spot while the photographer moved an over-sized clunky camera around. Little Man was able to move freely around the entire studio “room” and the photographer just kept snapping away!
There were also many new props, backgrounds, and digital options this trip, which was super nice! Little Man immediately spotted the Harley prop and backdrop and claimed it for his own! 
More than any of those features and upgrades though, the most important and impressive part of our trip to the JCP Studio was the price! Although I absolutely love having pictures taken of my kiddos, I am not a big fan of paying a fortune in the process! I mean, I am just going to replace these pictures with new ones in a few months or so anyway!
Apparently the associate who helped us with our session this week had bargain-seeker radar, because she knew instantly that I wanted the best available deal and started helping me peruse through my stack of coupons for various packages and freebies! Did you know that you can tweet – yes, TWEET – from the studio during your session and automatically save 50% off your order?! Neither did I, but she did! So I tweeted… and I saved… and so I ordered a few extra prints… What?! Isn’t that how it works?!
Between renewing our portrait club membership {no sitting fees}, and the handy “birthday package” coupon we received via email, and the tweet I sent while there – I saved about 67% off my total purchase! Score! And I have some fabulous pictures of my adorable little guy – without the guilt of spending too much! Nothing beats frugal pictures of my babies!
This post is part of Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom.
