School Fundraiser Rant

[Leanna]

Those junkathons stink. I like it when they sell candybars that they carry around in the box, so I can pay a dollar and get an overpriced candy bar-- BUT its only a dollar and I get to enjoy my candy bar right then and there. My sister's school (private) sold donuts from the local donut place, the donut place donated and they were fresh and cheap. If its a good deal or at least reasonable, I don't mind fundraisers, but those catalogs selling junk.... yuck.

A chili dinner sounds good..... soooo goood..... I want chili.

 

[Randombitsofstring]

Eh? Aren't Chili nights a fund raiser too? As for cheap overpriced junk, I betcha most of us would be guilty of buying some of that stuff ourselves in our furnishings, our clothes, our kids toys etc etc ad nauseaum.

I am fairly aware of what things are worth and I am not going to pay inflated prices whether it’s from a catalog or from a store. For example—the cheapest roll of Christmas paper in the catalog is $10 for 20sq. ft. For that price I could buy 2 or 3 rolls of 20sq. ft at Wal-mart or a dollar store. The cheapest item in the catalog is measuring spoons for $7. I have a set of measuring spoons that I paid $3 for. Plus the school only receives about 15% of the money earned. I would rather write them a check for $10 and have all $10 go to the school then buy an overpriced roll of wrapping paper and the school only gets $1.50 of the money.

Believe me I buy very few items that I don’t need. I’m not some sopping crazy female that has buy, buy, buy.

 

[Linnis]

I am fairly aware of what things are worth and I am not going to pay inflated prices whether it’s from a catalog or from a store. For example—the cheapest roll of Christmas paper in the catalog is $10 for 20sq. ft. For that price I could buy 2 or 3 rolls of 20sq. ft at Wal-mart or a dollar store. The cheapest item in the catalog is measuring spoons for $7. I have a set of measuring spoons that I paid $3 for. Plus the school only receives about 15% of the money earned. I would rather write them a check for $10 and have all $10 go to the school then buy an overpriced roll of wrapping paper and the school only gets $1.50 of the money.

Exactly.

 

[Heart4Him]

I have never heard of the "promise notes" until now..wow! I don't know how I'd feel about that.:o

I guess I'm kind of in the minority on this one. I don't mind the fundraisers, however, my daughter goes to a private Christian school and they are very low pressure about it!

I've seen how much they benefit the school and my child, though. The catalog sale that they do each year is really quality stuff in my opinion, and we have our "favorites" each year when it comes to summer sausage, cheese or candy, etc.

We don't spend much but she gets lots of sales usually at church and in our family. The prizes that they offer are actually really nice, as well. It can be overwhelming when you get lots of kids selling at once!

All in all, from my experience it is a good thing and I think the ones that my dd's school goes through are really good ones and fairly low pressure and stress for the parents!

 

[seamonster]

I generally dislike the public school fundraisers. As everyone else has said, it's usually overpriced and cheap junk that I'll never use or that I could have bought more inexpensively somewhere else.

My sister goes to a private Catholic school that has a total of 50 students. The owners of McDonalds send their kids there, and each year they donate coupon books for free and half priced McDonalds food to the kids to sell. It's $5 for a sheet of 10 coupons and all of the money goes to the school. I like that because the school gets all the money and it's something most people are willing to buy. There are enough free coupons on there that it equals out to the $5.

 

[GolfingMom]

For example—the cheapest roll of Christmas paper in the catalog is $10 for 20sq. ft. For that price I could buy 2 or 3 rolls of 20sq. ft at Wal-mart or a dollar store.

I purchased wrapping paper from a fundraiser and it is by far the very best wrapping paper I've had! I don't even like to use it! I HATE the stuff I get at Target...or Hallmark etc. They no longer do that wrapping paper one ...so bummed! I guess we all view it differently

 

[Zoomer]

My daugther is starting kindergarten this year and her school is a pretty small Christian school. Fundraising is one way to keep the price of tuition down. They don't force the kids to sell, and they sell pretty popular things like Joe Corbi's and chocolates from a local gourmet candy company. Those things are pretty easy to sell and they don't do prizes.
In your case, though, I would NEVER sign a note that promises that your child will at least sell "x" amount. You could use that as an example by explaining to the kids that if you can't be 100% sure that you can keep a promise, you shouldn't make it.