They have something like that here, but I’m both bad for cutting coupons and I only actually shop at a few of the places in there.
Plus the books cost looks at the emails she got about them a month ago 33 dollars. If I used more of the coupons it might be worth it, but I don’t so it’s not. I’m more likely to flip through my aunt’s book (she’s a teacher, she usually buys one because she gets them for 10) and if they won’t use the coupons I want they’ll let us take them.
I like those ones though.
FWIW, the best coupon book I ever got was free at orientation at the University of Arizona. It was inside the Graham-Greenlee dorm, so only students (who lived in that dorm) had access to it AFAICouldT.
For a packet of onion dip mix? I got two for $1.39 for my last party. I mean, what a mark-up on that. I felt guilty saying no to the kid, but seriously, way overpriced.
Parents, you’d be amazed the the hard sell these companies give your sons and daughters to hype them into selling.
I teach 5th grade in a public school. Every fall, I have to take my class to the gym for the fundraiser kickoff assembly. I LOATHE it. Yeah, it breaks up the afternoon, but watching those pros manipulate an audience of 8-12 year-olds is downright depressing. Guess what they focus on? Yup, the PRIZES! “Look at this shiny, plastic, cheaply-made toy! You can have this FOR FREE if you sell $100 worth or our crap! If you sell $1500 you get a boombox!” No wonder they cry and argue when you tell them you’re sending a check for the field trip account in lieu of participating.
The worst one by far was the year Miss Money came to pass out fundraising catalogs. She had a wad of dollar bills, a rainbow wig with dollars attached, and a bunch of games that eager volunteers would come forward to play. The winners got cash in their hands. She had a money booth (old-fashioned phone booth-type thing with a fan blowing dollar bills around) and selected kids would step in and grab cash for 30 seconds. Most kids have lots of toys but not lots of cash, so this technique was killer among the elementary population. After working the students into a frenzy by this money come-on, she announced that anyone who sold X dollars worth of her catalog dreck would be invited to a MONEY PARTY with the opportunity to enter the booth and play lots of other money games. I swear I am not making this up. Yes, several months later, Miss Money returned and the lucky sellers left social studies class to go to the party. They came back to class announcing who made the most $$$ and who just got cake. Bleah . .
I don’t know how much money my school realizes from fundraisers–my days are more focused on test scores, NCLB mandates and keeping little Nick from pissing all over the bathroom floor–but it can’t be worth it. Just typing out the Miss Money paragraph made me sad.
On another note: I send home monthly Scholastic book order forms. They are separate from the Book Fair. I process the class book orders myself and the points I earn translate into lots of books for my classroom library. And often into individual books for individual kids.
I used to see similar kids around the University of Minnesota 10 years ago. I always wondered if it was some kind of scam–they were often out during school hours.
I’m also pretty sure that the kids selling magazines “for a trip to Europe” were a scam, as that was also during school hours, and they never mentioned a school or a church or any organization. I always wondered what idiot was stupid enough to let them into our secure apartment building.
The ladies in my office want me to bring my kid’s fundraiser crap in! I didn’t the first year–but they started bugging me about it. I bring it in, but I always tell them not to feel obligated. This year, my daughter and her friend went around the neighborhood, too. Next year, she’s in middle school–I haven’t seen any middle schoolers on my doorstep selling crap, so perhaps we’re done with it.
It seems like an organized group, and you mostly see them in Southeast San Diego, where the majority of the crime is. (The drugs, OTOH, are everywhere. Believe you me.) I’ve never doubted them, although the fact that it happens during school hours is a little strange. The other strange thing is that you always seem to find them in grocery store parking lots, separated from each other by a couple hundred feet, without any adults around. Makes me wonder if they’re homeless dropouts from a shelter or something.
Ha! Not if middle school is much like it was 10 years ago, you’re not…
ETA:
S/he isn’t. I was pitched the same exact thing in 7th grade back in 1997.
When we lived in a townhouse community we used to get kids hawking stuff door-to-door who were clearly not from our neighborhood. Always to help out with activities or whatever that sounded pretty vague. In one case the kid looked dispirited (sp?) and asked to use the phone to call for a ride - clearly he’d been driven to our “wealthy suburban” neighborhood to sell the candy bars. It was pretty widely known as a scam - maybe some of the funds were used for good activities but the majority of the proceeds were not put to charitable use. Sort of like those professional fundraisers “for the firemen” or whatever, where the supposed charity gets maybe 2% of the money raised.
eta: A little googling turns up a link to a book which discusses just that situation:
link (in case this doesn’;t work, google “door-to-door children scam” and look for the books.go0gle.com hit)
I knew it. The magazine sellers were teenagers, usually white, clean-cut, who looked like they should have been in school but they were not. Where do these kids come from? Why do they participate? Do they think they are going to Europe, or are they lying? Are they runaways who came to the “big city” and ended up involved in this shady deal? I wonder now if I should have called the police.
OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH. Us, too.
With mine I like to throw in the " Well, the school gets X amount in Taxes from us every year. " lecture combined with a “Fiscal Responsiblity Lecture” ( AC in the classrooms which hover around 80 degrees in the winter, sweltering in the spring-fall months or lights for the tennis courts. Guess which one the superintendent installed. Go on. Guess.
I’ve never participated in those stupid fundraisers. You know the fundraising companies are making good money on this crap they sell, and all they have to do is print up some glossy literature and get your little angels to sell for them.
My kid came home last year with the homework assignment to get names and addresses of her relatives for a fundraiser. That drove me to send letters and make phonecalls to school officials, haven’t seen that little mistake repeated.
I bow to your superior wisdom and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Totally awesome idea. I can’t wait to use it myself if the need arises. If it does, I will have my minions ready to give the name and number of all admin members.
On an only vaguely related note, back in high school my best friend and I happened to stumble on a completely unsecured home directory on our school’s server, whereupon we found a list of every plausible way to contact every teacher, administrator and other staff member. By an incredible coincidence, we caught our school’s vice principal on live TV an hour or two later. Of course, we called him on his cellphone. Hilarity ensued.
I don’t understand the question. You either have your children do their own soliciting, you do it for them, or you say NO. What’s the problem? Does the kid get kicked out of school if you don’t sell a certain amount?