If you’re a parent of a school-aged child, then right about now you’re probably dealing with picture day. I can still remember the excitement I felt as a child about gearing up to picture day. Except for the holidays or my birthday, it was the one time of year when I was allowed to get a new outfit–from hair bows to tights and new shoes.

Back in fourth grade I was particularly stoked for picture day, because it was the first time I’d chosen my entire new outfit, from head to toe–no input from mom and dad this time around. I had my new yellow dress, yellow barrettes, yellow tights and black patent leather shoes.

It was the morning of picture day, and I was all dressed, sans the shoes, and in the bathroom to brush my teeth. I recall needing a new tube of toothpaste or something that was stored in the cabinet above the toilet in the bathroom. So I did what I always did when I needed to reach something up high in the bathroom–I stepped onto the closed toilet seat to give myself a boost. Except this morning the toilet seat wasn’t closed and I stepped in to the toilet itself.

Though the toilet was recently flushed and the water was clean enough, there wasn’t time to wash and dry my tights before I had to leave for school. I was crushed that I would have to change out of my beloved yellow tights and wear an alternate white pair, and I never again looked to step up on a toilet before checking to make sure the top was closed.

But the reason that I’m bringing up picture day–and my memories of it–is because we just went through picture day at the middle school with my daughter Annie, and next week we’ll be doing the same with my daughter Jane at the high school. I don’t know about you, but I find picture day to be a complete rip off (maybe my mom did, too?). Why? Well, I think my friend Denise said it best over at her blog “Confessions of a Mean Mommy”:

We all have cameras. Many of us have very good cameras. Even our cheaper cameras take good pictures. That was not always the case, of course.

No longer do we need these companies to “capture” our child’s likeness. I mean, really, don’t we all have way too many pictures of our kids as it is? I know that I do try to use the school pictures as ready-made gifts for the grandparents. We frame the 5X7 shots and give them away. Sure, they may not be the best pictures of the kids but it’s the thought that counts, right?

My biggest pet peeve with today’s class pictures, besides the prices, is the way they set up the actual class picture: it’s just a group of headshots from each kid’s portrait. No more do they gather together a bunch of chairs and have kids sit and stand in a group, along with their teacher. There is something very nostalgic about that set up, and I miss it.

So how can you make picture day more affordable? Well, I know you can’t just keep your kid home to avoid the whole problem, because there is always picture retake day. However, you can try some of these tricks:

Forego the fancy colored background. Just by choosing the “regular” gray background, I saved about $8 on the “package.” (The pictures here are from a few years ago when we experimented with letting our kids choose a colored background for their school photos. I’m not sure they did anything to enhance the images.)

Order the class picture only. I know that on picture day for the travel teams my girls play on–yeah, more pictures we don’t need–you have the option of ordering just the team or class picture, and there is no charge for that. See if you can’t finagle that with the company that does your school’s class pictures.

Find ways to reuse the pictures. If you find yourself with a bunch of wallets, trim them into strips for bookmarks and slip them into book gifts you give this holiday. Or use those smaller, “I don’t know what to do with these” pictures as Christmas ornaments. You can find teeny tiny frames at a craft store, and you can put them in there and hang them on your tree and everyone else’s tree, just to get rid of them!

Talk to your parent-teacher group about changing how they handle picture day. Someone mentioned to me that photographic companies negotiate with schools and the parent-teacher groups to get in as the class picture vendor by offering to share some of the profits with the school. This was a new one on me. If this is the case with your school–and they’re not actually making money from the photography companies as promised–then suggest they come up with a Plan B. At the very least ask them to do away with the spring portraits that seem to have become commonplace in many districts. Why do kids need to be pulled out of class for another period during the school year to have their pictures taken and I have to pay for that, too?

What are some of the ways you make picture day doable for your family?