The Ultimate Fundraiser

Ever heard of the Upromise program? Basically, it's a partnership between lots of companies to give a small portion of your purchase of their goods or service to a particular child's education. Contributions go straight into a savings account managed by them, to be used for college education. The beauty of it is that you, loyal RussellBaby readers, can assist Leah and me in this endeavor. Don't worry, you don't have to buy $100/oz perfume from France, or shop at snootypeople.com for elaborate home decor items. Things that you buy almost every day can help little Eric or Erica go to a real university instead of North Memphis Cosmetology school (of course, if little Eric wanted to go to cosmetology school, we'd have bigger issues to deal with).

Currently we have almost $200 saved, which doesn't sound like a lot, but anything that ole Mom and Dad don't have to spend is fine with me. So, allow me to pose these questions:

• Ever buy gas at Exxon?
• Ever buy groceries at Kroger using your Kroger Plus card?
• Have you ever bought anything at Bed, Bath, and Beyond?

These are just a few examples of how you can help us save. Let's take Exxon as an example: They give $.01 for every gallon of gas that you buy. Let's say you have a 15-gallon tank, and fill up once a week. Assuming a 40-week pregnancy, and 18 years before starting college, you would donate $146.20 over that time from just from buying gasoline!! Next time you're at Kroger look for the "Upromise" sticker on the shelf, close to the price tag. Then think to yourself, "I could be helping Eric and Leah's child."

If you're interested, or want more info, email me (I send you a referral email, which you use to sign up!). If you wanna sign up and instead help your own child or grandchild, that's fine and perfectly understandable. It's just that this program doesn't require you to buy anything other than what you'd be buying anyway, and the partner companies do the rest. Much better than handing me a 100-spot and saying, "Save this for your kid" and then finding out that I spent it on a radar detector on QVC.

Upromise - How It Works