by Jim
So I see this past week everyone was getting down to business on the blog. I don’t want to post anything up just quite yet. I have been tracking every penny and will be posting that up hopefully on Tuesday. I wanted a good idea of where my money is going for three straight months (without a budget) so I can make a realistic budget and know exactly where I need to cut down at. I know for a fact the eating out category needs to cut down (but by how much we will see), what I do know is that we only eat out if we are gone all day for either work related stuff or medical stuff. What I do want to post up today is that my son turned two on Wednesday. The time has really flown by, it is just crazy. And as I stated in my video post, I wanted to do things differently, so I wanted to do a picture post today. I won’t post up too many, even though I have millions of pictures! 
This is my boy’s hospital picture.
Here he is at one month old! Already looking to the stars!
3 months! My little Biker Guy!
6 months! As you can tell he is very photogenic.
Which hurt the bank account the first year, with all the pictures we had done.
But these are the memories and they are priceless.
Now we are at 1!!! I love food smeared pictures!
And that brings us to Wednesday and his 2nd birthday! Look at this pictures! I couldn’t choose which one of these to choose from, so I just threw them all up. My wife says he could be a kid model. But she is bias don’tcha think?
So there you have it. My boy is getting so big, and believe me he is a handful. He has a sparkling, unique personality that I wouldn’t trade for the world.
So back to the financial part, this is where my wife and I disagree. Although I do tend to lean more toward her side, and I sure do see her point. Are pictures worth paying for when you are fighting debt? That first year I think we bought 6 sets of pictures for him, a school picture set for Gianna, her daycare picture set, her daycare graduation set, and two sports sets. Oh and our family Christmas set. This year this is the first set, but who knows what else.
So what do you think?!?
Beautiful pictures and a handsome young man!
From a financial perspective, I think pictures packages are “outrageously overpriced”.
HOWEVER, I do have first-hand appreciation of how fast little ones grow up and in some ways documenting and revisiting even the smallest of fraction of these memories is one of the best investments one can ever make in terms of lifetime joy. Hence, my quotation marks in my first statement.
Maybe you can post the actual numbers: I am imagining $30-$50 a pop? Prints + digital or prints only? Perhaps you can work off a barter system in the future like Hope?
Well for the ones we got with local people it was between $60-$80. But many of them we got from box stores, like sears & walmart, which cost a handful like $150-$200.
I wasn’t planning on getting his two years done, but then his birthday came up and I kept contemplating on whether or not. So most of the local people were booked up and I went to Potrait Innovations. I am very happy with the pictures, but very mad about the price. I think we ended up with $130… for both print and digital. But the thing is for the package we got, we didn’t even get copyrights to the pictures and the ones they put on the disk are lo-resolution. :-/
Happy Bday to your little man!
My kids are going to be 12 this year, and when they were this age, we did pics 2x a year. We had a plan with JCP, and the sheets were $4 each (with an easily found coupon). I would say we would spend $40 on prints (some of each kid, and then some of them together).
Financially, the pics are a no-no. But it is nice to have them to look back on. BUT….since your son is a happy participant, you could probably get some great shots yourself and be just as happy. There isn’t anything special about the studio. These “professionals” at any of the chain places aren’t trained artists.
And school pics are a rip off. They are overpriced, and tend to be less than stellar. It cost us $40 a kid for just a few pictures, and most of the time it wasn’t worth it.
I was getting great deals at the Wal-Mart Portrait Studio with coupons. But then they went out of business last year.
You are probably right, I have been trying to learn digital photography, but get so lost with it. I hate, hate, HATE school and sports pics, but the wife really loves them. So I am not sure… I guess she and I have to talk more.
Seeing that you have a column for Verizon in your original interview post, and assuming this is for one or several cell phones why can’t you take these pictures with your phone for free. I know my iPhone takes high resolution pics and doesn’t cost a dime over what I’m already paying for my plan.
Actually we don’t have cell phones, this was an item we eliminated when we first got on the debt train. We were planning on getting them back this year (for it is a real hassle some days when I am away from the house. Plus with what I have been dabbling in, the cell phone will definitely pay for itself, and it is a write off.
I know some suggest to stay away from “Savings” sites while in debt (to avoid the temptation), but you can sometimes find local photographers (or even Sears/JCPenny portrait studio deals) for really cheap on Groupon. We did that for Christmas photos last year and I think we spent $40 and got several sheets (don’t remember how many, but enough to give a framed photo to several family members) plus the digital CD. This is an area where I’d like more – I’d LOVE to have more professional photos, but my husband always holds me back (which is probably a good thing). I do have a friend with a fantastic professional-grade camera who has offered to take family photos and such. She isn’t a photographer (just a hobbyist), but you can’t beat the price (free!) : )
Your kid is very cute. I think that professional pictures are a luxury you can’t afford right now. Take your own pictures.
Thanks and I agree with you
I don’t have kids so I can’t offer any advice on the photo question, but I just wanted to say that your son is a very handsome little guy!
Thanks Katie!
Agreed with ND chick. Heck, with no debt, we have never paid for pictures. It seems pointless in this day and age. We have a million pictures of our kids. While everyone else we know shelled out a fortune for pictures, we would copy their ideas and poses. Seriously, I should post some of the pictures I have, and I am certainly no photographer. But, I’ve got all the cute baby pictures. Certainly don’t feel like I ever missed out on anything.
{That said, my parents splurged on family portraits *once* and I can not get them to do so again. !! I can see the value, but it’s just 10 times a year that seems a little ridiculous. Once a decade – or once a generation – is a treasure}.
To be clear, I want to do multi-generational photos but my parents refuse to participate. They don’t want me to spend the money, yadda yadda. I think a lot of it is the times – have done very informal things with friends who are photographers. But it’s not the same as a high end studio session.
See the 10 times was when he was not even a year old. One month, Three Month, Six Month, Nine month, 1 year. Then the daughter had preschool, preschool graduation, fairy pictures, T-Ball pics, and Soccer.
What a cutie!!! And a great question…it shows you are willing to put sentimental things on the table. I would have a hard time passing up the pictures of them when they were little…but with that being said, since you just had these made, use the next few months to experiment with your own camera/phone, etc. Maybe you will discover you have another talent and then you can pose your son in your choice of backgrounds. If you discover that you are not very well suited to this particular talent, then research local deals to find the best possible price. The years fly by so however you can, preserve those memories. Wishing you the best on your get out of debt journey.
You are completely right Mary. I don’t plan on any other pictures this year besides family ones in November, and the new school year.
Oh dang it! As I type this I realize that I left out pictures with Santa and the Easter bunny.
He’s adorable! I think taking a lot of pictures is so important. My kids are a little older and I regret not getting more pictures.
The gift we gave my parents for Christmas this last year was pictures of their grandkids. My sister in laws mom has a nice camera and we took them ourselves. We have zero photography experience and they came out really nice. It only cost us to have them printed so, I think that’s always a good way to go.
That’s funny, For the three sets of great grandparents we did the same thing inside a clock!
Hi Jim-
I see the value in wanting to get pictures of the kids, they are only this young for so long. That being said, I am going to agree with the consensus and say that regularly going anywhere is a bad choice at this point. I could see going once a year to get an annual professional photo, with coupons or a groupon deal, because these are memories you want to keep, but I think you will have a hard time selling the majority of readers on anything more than that….
I think you really need to look at the bigger picture of the proportion of the costs. Now, I am pulling these numbers from memory, but I believe you said your debt was about $25k and your annual take-home pay is about $30k? Wow! Add to that the interest rates and if you do not start going hard-core gazelle you will not ever even get to pull ahead. If you average $100 a month on pictures, it adds up to almost 4% of your annual budget. Yesterday, readers gave Ashley crap about wanting to give that much to charity, and their income is almost double yours!
I think if you were to worry less about capturing photos of your kids in the quality of a photographer and more about making sure you are capturing the spirit of the child you can be happy with what you can do on your own. And remember, those store bought photos are done through professional filters, which you can do pretty easily on your computer.
I know you want to give your kids the best you can, but there are two things to keep in mind that can really help you in your financial journey. Two of the best things you can give them that I hope you learn from this journey are this: an understanding of and the importance of financial responsibility; and the gift of being able to support yourself without becoming a financial burden on them in their adulthood.
I am cheering you on in your journey, but I also think you have the roughest road ahead of all the bloggers. I look forward to seeing your transformation!
Cheers!
-Meghan
Thanks for your input Meghan. I see you have sound advice. I do want to say, that I don’t plan on doing that this year. Basically I wanted to get my son’s pictures done yearly on his birthday. While his sister’s will be done at the beginning of the school year. But we also get family pictures done (which I can see if I can do them myself, since I have a DSLR)
Wow I didn’t realize it was that high of a percentage. I will have to go through my past and see exactly how much was put out on photography since my son was born.
As mentioned in other comments, I don’t plan to get another picture taken till the beginning of the next school year for my daughter.
Those are some great things to keep in mind. I try to teach my daughter, but at the moment I think she is a little too young to understand.
May I ask why you personally think I have the roughest road?
Sure you can ask 🙂 I don’t mention it to be a downer, it is simply a numerical reality. If you subtract mortgages and student loans (both of which can be considered expensive investments, they also usually have relatively low interest rates), your debt is equal to (or in some cases higher than) the other bloggers. On the opposite end, your previously mentioned income is anywhere from half to 2/3’s of what they are currently bringing in. That just means you have as much to do with less resources.
At this point we haven’t gotten into your nitty gritty details, so I don’t know what kind of opportunities you may have to increase your income; such as working more hours, picking up a part-time job, if your wife does or would choose to have a job, etc……
At the same time, because of these obstacles, I will be cheering even harder for your successes 🙂
Cheers!
-Meghan
I live in a run down town in PA, and there isn’t much opportunity job wise. I can easily take up one if need be, for I have lots of time. And when some long term contract work comes available from the 200+ companies I am an independent contractor of, I snatch it up. There is a lot of things I dabble in, that bring in money, when I do them. But lots of the time, the cost to reward ratio, isn’t worth my time.
Like for instance there are lots of one day contracts that are about two hours away. They state the contractor would be paid $11.00/hour… but then it is for six hours. After I take out self employment taxes, this drops to almost minimum wage. Then the time going there and coming home. It just isn’t worth my time. I do take these positions when they are within 30 minutes. But because I value my time, work, and experience I don’t usually go less than $14.
My wife is unable to work, since she is disabled. And suffers many illnesses, that would do more harm than good if she worked.
Sounds like you have a very long road ahead of you. I will wait until this coming week to see your numbers all laid out, you mentioned that you are still gathering and compiling the data. I am beginning to wonder if you might have blinders on to the reality of your financial situation, but hopefully it was just because you were low-balling your income numbers……
I don’t know if you have ever used anything to calculate the interest and length of time it will take to repay your debts, earlier this week Hope used this one: http://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/debt-reduction-calculator.html
It seemed to be an eye-opening experience for her. Have you used something like this? Will you also be posting those numbers?
Cheers!
-Meghan
Jim-
It sounds like you have a really rough road ahead of you. I will wait to see since you said you are still compiling and organizing your numbers, hopefully we will see them this week? But it is beginning to sound like you have blinders on to the reality of your debt…..
I am also not entirely sure how high on your priority list getting rid of your debt is….
An observation, you mentioned that you were working at restaurants to help out a friend. In my experience (having spent over a decade in the service industry in the past), it is very easy to get into the mindset of needing cash for a bill so you just pick up an extra shift or two. You work as hard as you want, or don’t, because there is always more cash available at the next shift, and it is hard to break free of that industry because you are so used to the ready cash. I would be curious to know if that is a mindset that still happens for you as you mention having lots of time, but always managing to come up with cash for an unexpected bill (which also isn’t always the case because if it was you would not be in debt)?
Earlier this week, Hope showed us a table that she created that showed her how much interest, etc. that she would be paying on all of her debts. Have you ever made these types of calculations with your own debt? (Here is the link she used: http://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/debt-reduction-calculator.html)
And now, some deep thought questions: If you use the calculator that shows you how much interest you will be paying, how much time does it take away from your family just to make those interest payments every year? If you don’t take some time away to work more to chip away at the debt faster, how many years will it continue to take that time away from your family? As your wife does not work (which I am totally fine with, you could have just told me that you two had decided she would be a stay-at-home mom :)), how much of your combined total debt would she be on the hook for if, God forbid, something happens and you are unable to work? And what would be her plan to handle that?
I’m not trying to be a Negative Nancy, or attack your decisions. It just seems that you are choosing to live paycheck to paycheck with opportunities to work that you deem not worth your time because you would rather be somewhere else. While I applaud your commitment to your family, I would be more impressed if you were debt free, socking a bit away every month for your future retirement, and then living your ideal life.
Cheers!
-Meghan
P.S. Sorry for the multi-post, I don’t know what on earth was going on with my computer, it took so long to show the post I thought it had traveled to the far regions of the internet never to be seen again! Of course, after I reproduce it (and expand cause I can’t help but be verbose) it suddenly reappears to make me seem an internet illiterate! 🙂
It was probably because you were in the spam box. And as I approved it you were also submitting a new one.
Hey Meghan, (for some reason I push reply on your thread. Maybe because you were in the spam folder. I have used and am currently using that calculator. What you don’t realize is if you go back to my original post that did show numbers, I didn’t have that much more debt, maybe around $7,000 (give or take since I don’t remember) I had $1400 on my car when it was totaled. I have been hitting my debt pretty hard up until January. I would say that we eliminated about $12000 last year. I just got my new vehicle at the very end of last month. That is how my debt spiked. The calculator stated that by October I would have been debt free.
I stopped hitting the debt the beginning of the year so hard, just because we never had a written budget. I wanted to see what we truly spent in a given month. With that said, since I only can post on Tuesdays and the weekend, I am hoping I can crunch the numbers of this month in one day. And take screen shots of everything, then make it into a post. If I can’t, it will probably be the last two sections of my debt history.
You have a very valid point, it isn’t always the case or I wouldn’t be in debt. The helping the friend out lately, I don’t usually get paid for this. He is probably willing to pay me. But I care about his health (he works seven days a week 12-14 hour days) more than I care about getting paid.
You are probably right about taking more working opportunities… I will look into more. And no they aren’t in the service industry per say. I could easily get a job back in that line of work, but I want my other abilities to show.
I have struggled with this question myself. Professional photos with a photographer in our area are REALLY expensive. Like $500+ if you want digital copies. I have wondered about buying a decent camera and doing some online tutorials to learn more about photography. Anyone else gone that route?
I have and have had for 6+ years now a bartered deal with a local professional photographer who takes the kids pictures (1x per year.) That would be my number one recommendation.
But a close second would be a decent digital camera which you can get pretty decently these days and then watch some Lynda.com lessons or even some YouTube.
I just heard about Lynda.com just this week, just couldn’t justify another monthly expense. What exactly do you barter with them… because I have tried to do this with web page design, email marketing help, social media marketing help. None took me up on it.
Jim,
I have to be frank: at those types of prices (>$100/session * 5+ sessions per year), this is something you need to figure out another way of doing.
My suggestions would be:
1. Find a friend with a nice camera (really any digital SLR from the last 5-6 years is plenty) and get some nice digital files that you can print on the cheap (a topic for another discussion), or barter for equivalent from an advanced amateur/professional.
2. Take your own pictures. While smartphones can produce reasonable results in decent lighting, they are not ideal for your specific application (e.g. portrait photography) because of the relative wide-angle lens which causes distortion. But, that would be fine in a pinch. A more capable “point and shoot” digital camera can be found very cheap used on craigslist/eBay. I would keep your expenditure under $100 and I think that should be doable.
In my own instance, I am an amateur with very little in the way of actual artistic talent. However, I do own a very nice digital SLR setup, the entirety of which cost an embarassingly high amount (to avoid any hypocrisy, I should note that I am fortunate to be debt-free and generally quite frugal otherwise). The pictures that camera takes are totally worth it to me, and in my opinion every bit the equal of your average mall photo studio (but certainly not comparable to pros with real talent). Therefore, I would recommend option #1 if possible.
I have a pretty decent camera Joe, a Canon EOS Rebel T3, with two different lenses. I also have photoshop and lightroom. I also have aperture, but haven’t dabbled in that. I have some good pictures I have done, but that is on automatic… I want to learn how to do aperture and all that. That is supposedly to make a world of a difference.
But everyone is right, I need to cut this down.
That is more than a decent camera.
For portraits:
1. Turn knob to Av.
2. Turn the wheel near the shutter button to the left until you get to the lowest number.
3. Maximum zoom (if a zoom lens).
4. Make sure you frame your subjects closely.
5. Experiment away! It’s digital!
The above is seriously like 80% of it!
Hmm thanks for the tips. Once it gets nicer out, I will be sure to try this!
I wouldn’t do any pictures until you are out of debt. Hear me out though. You have a lot of debt and are mostly the primary breadwinner. Are you willing to sacrifice your family’s financial security for “professional” pictures of your son? Note, I didn’t say don’t take any pictures, just paying for professional ones. When I have a tough financial decision to make, I like to “defer” the decision until later. In this instance, I’d do the following. I’d stop all pictures and anything remotely unnecessary until I had zero debt. Until then, I’d think of free or no cost ways to do things. You could take your own pictures of your son, and they’d be just as cute. You could get them printed at Walmart or wherever. Then, when your debt was paid, you could go back to professional photographs if you choose. So essentially, you aren’t saying no, but your are deferring this decision until a later time. I mean, what if something unforeseen happened, and your family was on the street? Suddenly, spending money on professional pictures doesn’t seem as important. Now, I am not trying to scare anyone or be Debby Downer, but rather, trying to put things in perspective. Getting out of debt is hard work. There will always be something you’ll want to buy. Always. The less expenses you cut, the longer it will take. Cutting out professional pictures for a year or so, doesn’t seem like it would be a bad thing. Notice, I didn’t say don’t take any pictures of your son, I just said to put off professional ones for a year or so. Now imagine for a minute, you added up all of those professional fees you spent in the last year and had that as your emergency fund? If you took your own pictures, you’d still have cute pics of your son and you’d have cash in the bank. Just a thought.
You’ll get there Jim, but you’ll have to make some tough decisions.
Hope this helps.
Thank you Mary. My wife and I agreed that the only pictures we will get done are our family pictures in November. I usually go with someone local, that charges about $50 for the sitting and we get full copyrights. At this time, we usually have the kids have separate shots as well.
I totally agree with your last answer, local people have always done great shots for us. I go with a photographer someone else has used and have always been really happy. As they get older the change isn’t as dramatic as that first year. We also barter with a friend, we watch her two little boys a few times and then she uses her excellent photo skills for us. She’s not pro, but she’s good so it works for us. Good luck with the pics, they are so fun!
I have a hard time regretting spending money on pictures. They only increase value over time! However, it looks as though you will you need to back off a touch. Maybe go to school pictures for your daughter and once a year for your son? If you already have the camera I would research the free tips and tricks on the internet for taking better pictures. Who knows maybe you could get some extra cash taking Xmas card photos for your friends!?
Funny that you say this Theresa. One of my network marketing gigs is that I belong to a greeting card/ gifting company. I was thinking about the same about the pictures, but to be honest I don’t like the school pics. They just don’t bring out my daughter’s qualities. I am at a lost with how to go about approaching this.
Jim, you’ve got a lovely son. I am sure you must be a proud dad. Happy belated birthday to the little man. I am with everyone else who said that paid photo shootings shouldn’t be a priority right now. I am sure with the camera and software you have you can take fantastic pictures… it might take a little time to get used to, but like others pointed out there are so many tutorials online, I am sure you’ll get the hang of it. If you’re doing the family portrait by a professional it will be all much more of a treat.
I couldn’t agree more! I really have to post some of these pictures up that we got. There is one that we did that my daughter was dressed as a fairy, it was unbelievable. I only can wish to get that good. But we will not be buying anymore!
Please don’t post 9,000 pictures of your kid. It feels like you are using him for some sort of emotional high at the cost of his privacy.
Spending money on professional pictures is ridiculous. You know what are the pictures I treasure? The casual ones where you can see the subject’s personality or what they really liked to do–the ones my sister sends me of kids’ playing together on an ordinary weekday. The first day of school photos my mom took of us in front of the house every year. A passport photo of my dad my mom refers to as “his mugshot.”
To each his own Kerry! To each his own!
Once you have the pictures, take good care of them since you’re spending all this money on them. Don’t stick them in a drawer and forget about them like my mom does. Put them in picture frames and put them in acid free photo albums so you can enjoy them years down the road. My kids love to see their childhood pictures and yours will too! No need to spend tons of money to preserve them, but keep them from possible flooding in basements (friends of mine lost all baby photos in a basement flood) or from light damage or dust. They are very valuable and should be treated a such, regardless if you took the pictures or a professional. My children appreciate the pictures I took while we did memorable activities together such as coloring Easter eggs, family picnics, camping trips, feeding the ducks, etc. They even think they remember things from when they were one and two years old because we have pictures of them doing the activity! Good luck with your journey.