Nov 19, 2008

More on buying holiday photo cards

As I mentioned last week, I decided to see if I can get all of my holiday photo cards for as little money as possible. The price I want to beat is 15 cents per card, which is what I paid for a set of 10 and what made me realize that my cards don't need to match, they just need to be cheap! I've come to realize, though, that 15 cents per card is probably going to be unbeatable, and that anything under 30 cents is actually a pretty good price.

I'll probably wait a couple more weeks to see if there are any more outstanding deals on photo cards, and if not, I'll just order a set from Costco. (Thanks to Clean Clutterfree Simple for the reminder that they're usually the most inexpensive place for these things.)

Gina at Mommy Making Money has some great tips on saving on holiday cards. After calculating what I'll end up paying this year to send out holiday cards, I've decided to borrow one of Gina's ideas for next year. As I always do, I'll pick up boxes of cards on clearance after this Christmas. Next year, I'll get a stack of inexpensive or free prints of the photo I would have used on a photo card, and simply enclose it with the holiday card.

I like to enclose a little note each year with an update on our family, but I hate writing the same thing out over and over by hand, so I end up printing out letters on full size holiday paper. But with the photo already in there, I'm afraid it's going to get too bulky. So what I'll do next year is print up a brief note on a large shipping label and affix the label on the inside of each card or to the back of each photo. I think I should be able to fit my note onto labels like these.

In fact, I may even try the label thing out this year . . .

4 comments:

Corrie at "Cents"able Momma said...

I actually create my own 4x6 photo cards, so I can print them out from Snapfish for only 9 cents a print (and free shipping yesterday!). I send those out with a family update letter to those we don't see often. You can see a sample of what my card looks like here: http://centsablemomma.blogspot.com/2008/10/frugal-friday-unique-christmas-cards.html

I like your idea of using the label on the back of the photo, though. I might have to try that some year.

Gina @ MoneywiseMoms said...

Corrie's idea is great! I don't know how to do that kind of digital scrapbooking, but now I want to learn!

Anonymous said...

A few years ago, I sent photo cards, with my holiday note on a label on the back of the card. It worked great.

Chief Family Officer said...

@Corrie - Gina's right - I love it! Thanks for the suggestion - I'm going to have to learn how to do this by next year!

@Gloria - Thanks! I'm going to give it a try :)