Frugal or Cheap? (Warning Photos and a Rant)

[Eagle]

First, in your mind what's the difference between frugal and cheap?

Second, for some background a bit of a rant here as to why I was thinking about these two terms. In a group in Facebook someone posted they were 100% debt free (credit cards, student loans, medical bills, mortgage, etc.) and wanted suggestions on taking some family photos. The person explained they hadn't taken any family photos in two years and had a budget of $20. What would be your response?

[disneysteve]

First, in your mind what's the difference between frugal and cheap?

Second, for some background a bit of a rant here as to why I was thinking about these two terms. In a group in Facebook someone posted they were 100% debt free (credit cards, student loans, medical bills, mortgage, etc.) and wanted suggestions on taking some family photos. The person explained they hadn't taken any family photos in two years and had a budget of $20. What would be your response?

I think these are two unrelated topics.

We've had the "frugal vs. cheap" conversation before so I would just search for prior threads.

As for the photos, I see no need to have a professional photographer take horrendously overpriced pictures. We all have perfectly good cameras in our pockets today. Get a friend or family member to shoot a bunch of posed photos. Print them out and frame them. The most expensive part will likely be the frames. $20 may or may not cover it depending on how fancy they want to get with framing.

[Singuy]

Hiring a photographer for 20 bucks is not going to cut it..lol

I would invest some time learning about photography on youtube. There are many excellent lectures on how to take good pictures. It's actually really easy.

[MonkeyMama]

Frugal: Not spending money on things that you don't care about, so that you have the money to spend on what it is you do care about.

Photos is not anything I would spend money on. This may be especially so since we live in the digital age. Everyone and their brother is a photo hobbyist. I have tons of great photos though I've never paid for any.

I expect a close friend or relative photo hobbyist would take the pictures for free or for $20. I presume this person knows they'd have to print them out themselves and cover that part.

I don't care about photos the way most people do. I infinitely more care about spending time with my kids, not having to work as much, not having debt, and stuff like that. I don't know this person, but maybe that is their point of view.

[phantom]

I try to avoid definition questions, so I'm going to skip the first part of the question.

I've started "wasting" a lot of money on professional photography over the last year or so, because it makes the grandparents incredibly happy if I dress up my daughter and take her to a portrait studio a couple times a year. So, I get lots of emails about portrait deals. If you don't care about the digital copies of your pictures and wait for the right deal, you can get a package of nice prints for $10-25. I've even seen deals where you can get a combo of prints and one of your poses on CD around that price point. Checking Groupon usually helps.

The up-sell comes in the form of trying to convince you to get digital copies of everything or get your pictures printed on everything from snow globes to tote bags. Personally, I always want all the digital copies, and I haven't found a way to get those for under $75.

[disneysteve]

The up-sell comes in the form of trying to convince you to get digital copies of everything

All you need to do is take your $15 prints and scan them into your computer. Then you can make as many prints as you want. That's what we've always done with school pictures and such. We buy the cheapest package offered and then I make prints for family and friends.

[sv2007]

First, in your mind what's the difference between frugal and cheap?

Second, for some background a bit of a rant here as to why I was thinking about these two terms. In a group in Facebook someone posted they were 100% debt free (credit cards, student loans, medical bills, mortgage, etc.) and wanted suggestions on taking some family photos. The person explained they hadn't taken any family photos in two years and had a budget of $20. What would be your response?

The main different to me is that a cheap person is someone who's stingy to others and provides below-normal (society norms) in giving compensation. A cheap person might stiff the waiter at a restaurant or give much lower tip. A frugal person would prefer a cheaper restaurant of the same quality (if one's available) and leave a generous tip (because he's happy that he's saved so much $ with his fine dining pick).

As for family photos, I think that'd be a case of "to each his own". Some people just don't value family memories that much, which is totally fine with me.

[msomnipotent]

You can't even buy a decent shower curtain (as a backdrop) for $20. I'm not going to say the poster is cheap, because living debt-free doesn't always mean you have money, but $20 is not doable for portraits that are worth framing. Even asking someone with a good camera is risky. My husband has a super deluxe camera with the lenses and flashes and tripods. He takes AWFUL pictures! I found out the hard way when he nearly ruined my daughter's birthday party with his awfulness. Really, I couldn't even tell what I was looking at and I really needed the photos for their "backstage passes" as souvenirs.

Groupon is hit or miss for me. I am 0 for 3 with places like JC Penney, but the actual photographers have done a good job.

[dawnwes]

We have friends who do some freelance stuff for cheap. Do they have any friends who are amateur photographers?

Heck, I have a friend who takes her own photos and they are always good.

[rennigade]

For $20 tell them to go buy a disposable camera at walmart. Thats about all that will cover.

[JoeP]

We used to do the family portrait thing, but really prefer pictures that capture the moment better than wooden poses in a studio. I've taken surprisingly good photos with a basic digital camera, and if they're good enough for the people consuming them, then spending money beyond that is waste IMHO.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I looked at the photo of you and your family on your blog. Is that the kind of photo you think your Facebook person should spend more than $20 to get? I ask because if someone already has a camera, I think most anyone could produce something of that quality, or better if they either know what they are doing or are lucky to make the exposure correctly, digitally process it correctly if necessary and print it up on god paper with a great printer which is well calibrated.

So, no, asking what can be done for $20 doesn't sound cheap to me it sounds confident. Truth is-- most people are satisfied with way less than excellent photos. All my life I have seen horrible photos turned out by supposedly professional studios. Yet people buy them, frame them, and send them off to the relatives. Most of us are pretty easily satisfied with just about any deliberate photo.

[disneysteve]

Most of us are pretty easily satisfied with just about any deliberate photo.

I wouldn't even say "satisfied". I think many of us PREFER the photos we take ourselves. Some of my favorite pictures of my daughter are ones that I've taken when we've been on vacation or doing some other special event. I don't think we have any professionally taken photos of her that are displayed in our home and there are lots of pictures of her around.

[corn18]

I wouldn't even say "satisfied". I think many of us PREFER the photos we take ourselves. Some of my favorite pictures of my daughter are ones that I've taken when we've been on vacation or doing some other special event. I don't think we have any professionally taken photos of her that are displayed in our home and there are lots of pictures of her around.

Concur. I always take a few pics before the posed pic and they always get a ton more laughs than any posed picture we have ever taken. I hate posed pictures.

[Eagle]

All you need to do is take your $15 prints and scan them into your computer. Then you can make as many prints as you want. That's what we've always done with school pictures and such. We buy the cheapest package offered and then I make prints for family and friends.

This was actually suggested by someone else on FB. Isn't that illegal and an infringement of copy right though?