Upromise Online Shopping

If you're not familiar with Upromise, and you have kids in your family (immediate or extended), you should be. It's quite simple really... you shop with participating merchants, and they donate a percentage of your purchase price to your designated beneficiaries' college funds. Yes, seriously!

It's easy to set up. First, you sign up at www.upromise.com, and register your credit cards with them so that certain purchases, like when you buy fuel at Exxon or Mobil, automatically produce money in your Upromise account.

Second, always shop online through the Upromise website. Just use them as a gateway. This is where you get the best results. They have forged partnerships with hundreds of online merchants, including most of the big ones. Just look here!

All you have to do is click through the Upromise website to start shopping, and your purchase will produce a donation from that merchant for your little cousins, or nieces and nephews, or sons and daughters!

The best part of all, in my opinion, is that if you're like me, you use your rewards card for all your purchases, so you're really making out like a bandit every time you purchase something online. 5% cash back plus 5% to the kids' college funds... how can you not love that!?

OK, the only drawback is that the whole online shopping thing results in freight, which contributes to global warming... so I need to balance out the sin by making an extra effort at recycling, or not driving somewhere unless it's absolutely necessary for a few days.