The holidays are beginning in a couple of weeks with Halloween. If your house is anything like mine, this means it is the beginning of the season of house guests. Relatives and friends seem to visit the most in the winter. An easy way to update your home is by changing out pictures in the house. Updating the baby pictures of your teenager on the staircase wall or finally changing the wedding picture above the fire place to include all of your children is a quick and inexpensive start.

This is also the best time to start thinking of holiday cards with all of those fun pictures that you took all year. If you wait a few more weeks, your schedule will be more hectic and some of the best deals go to those who shop early. We went shopping this weekend to find the best deals on picture frames, prints and photo gifts to help you get ready and save money.

Michaels has a huge selection of photo frames. The best time to buy them here is when they are offering 50 percent off of frames, which they do quite often. If you want one of your pictures professionally matted and framed, this is also the place for the least expensive option. Load the Michaels application on your phone to make sure you always have a coupon with you. Shoppers can print Michaels coupons here as well.

Home Goods, TJ Maxx and Big Lots are always going to be hit or miss type of stores. But, when they have exactly what you are looking for, you will save a lot of money. Designer brands are often found at these stores at 50 percent or more off of the original department store price.

Walmart is a store where shoppers can get very inexpensive wall frames. They start at just a few dollars and come in wood colors as well as black. If you have large walls of many pictures, this is an option for you because the focus is more on the  photos than the frames. The quality of these frames is not great and you do have to examine them for scuffs and knicks, but for $3, its a steal. They offer prints in all sizes and shoppers can upload the pictures right to their website to share with family and friends. Prints start at 9 cents each but that price does have a minimum order number. They offer value priced photo gifts as well.

Jo-Ann has a nice selection of frames and already put together prints at reasonable prices. This ranks up with Michaels for me as a store that has great frames at great prices when they are on sale or when I have a coupon. The quality is nice without being overpriced. A coupon can be printed here or they can up loaded to your smartphone so you just show the cashier your phone. 

Costco is the cheapest place to get pictures printed if you are not using a coupon or taking advantage of a sale. Often, they even beat these prices. Their regular prints are 13 cents each and they will print pictures in all sizes. If you are thinking of doing photo gifts and albums this year, their photo books are average out to about $1 per page and they have a huge assortment of photo gifts for you to choose from. Greeting cards are $15 for 50 and adding increments of 25 only increases the price by less than $6. Shoppers can upload or email pictures to the store and pick them up when they shop. If you are in need of frames, this members only warehouse does have some great deals. They have packaged sets of frames which are nice because you can save money and coordinate your walls with similar frames in different sizes. These packaged sets are also great deals for sending identical gifts to each set of grandparents or other family members. Note that this is a members only store and there is an annual fee to shop at Costco.

Walgreens has a photo center that has same day pick up when you upload the pictures to their website. This is convienant and they often has discounts and coupons in their flyers right inside the door of the store. Shoppers can go to their website and see all of the options that are available to create and have printed up and then simply pick them up at the store when you are out running errands.  They are currently offering 33 percent off on their greeting cards so if you know which pictures you plan on using for your holiday cards and like the choices at Walgreens, this is a good time to place that order. Prints start around 12 cents each without coupons. 

CVS is also offering 33 percent off right now. The prices between CVS and Walgreens are always very close, but they do have different backgrounds and options for you to choose from. CVS has online ordering and all of the same convienance methods as Walgreens. if you already normally get your pictures or have been getting email discounts from Kodakgallery or Snapfish, these are also stores that you can pick up the orders from these websites at. Sometimes shoppers get a better deal going through these other companies because of the free print offers, but often the deals are better straight through the store. Keep your eyes open. Right now, when you register at CVS online for their pictures, you can get 25 free prints. Deals like these can not be beat since they are free.

Target has a selection of frames and also has a photo studio. The prices of their frames are about the  same as at Michaels and Jo-Anns, but rarely is there a coupon for them at Target. Watch Target for their print coupons at their website. They often offer free photo prints and discounts on their photo gifts. Prints start at 15 cents so they are a bit higher in price but they have some very creative gifts and ideas that the other stores do not carry.

When you order online for these stores to have them delivered to your house or to go and pick up yourself, be sure that you order though Ebates first. This site will give you cash back on your purchases just by going through them. It adds up in an account for you and then they will send you a check. Its like earning free money.