This year Bug's school had both a Scholastic Book Fair (halfway decent, but lots of books with Disney Princesses or other characters I don't want to push on my 2-year-old) and a Yankee Candle fundraiser (decent quality merchandise at least, but again, more crap no one needs). We are also enrolled with Upromise so that as we go about our normal shopping, some purchases credit cash back to a college savings account. I like that kind of arrangement, though we don't do quite enough brand name shopping to make it really work for us.

What I didn't know is that you can contribute to school fundraising programs in a similar way with a program called Schoolpop. You can get a Visa card or shop online, and there are some stores I actually use enrolled in the program (including amazon.com. It's great that companies are giving money back, and that people can select their own schools to give to (if they're participating). I guess as retailers get bigger and bigger (and therefore have locations pretty much everywhere) this gets easier to do. And how much better than sending the poor kids home as salespeople to push crappy wrapping paper on their parents' co-workers!

They also have a program for schools to earn money through recycling of cell phones and printer cartridges. I'll need to do a little more research to find out what the company's overhead is, but on first glance it looks pretty good in concept.

I haven't registered yet to see if Bug's school is participating, but I will. I think it's important to still be actively involved in your kids' school, whatever that means, but at the same time if programs like Schoolpop help them earn a little more money, all the better.

Just wait til the Bug hits Elementary School. You won't believe how much crap they try to get you to do. Awful, awful, awful. Pray for a read-a-thon. That's the best, easiest, supports kids and no crap to clutter your home.