If you've been hit by the recession and think you can't afford to send your kids to summer camp this year, talk to the camp director. You may qualify for a "campership."

There are scholarships for summer camp, but if you think you could qualify, act quickly: Experts warn they're limited and most are offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

About 90 percent of resident camps and 89 percent of day camps offer scholarships, says Ann Sheets, past national president of the American Camp Association.

Eligibility for camp scholarships usually is based on the parents' income, but there are all kinds of camperships out there. For example, pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk awarded grants this year to 15 summer camps that include funds to support scholarships for children with diabetes.

As college acceptance letters arrive, parents have added responsibilities to discuss with their children, including how to handle that new credit card tucked next to the campus ID in their wallets.

If your kid is going away to school for the first time, you may be planning to give him or her a credit card for expenses and emergencies. But a new federal law has changed the credit options for college students -- and piled more responsibility on their parents.

The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, which went into effect Feb. 22, is meant to make credit card terms and statements easier on consumers. It also has a few wrinkles aimed straight at young people -- and their parents -- getting their first cards. In fact, the law will affect a lot of young people. A study by Sallie Mae, the student lender, found that 39 percent of freshmen arrived on campus last year with at least one credit card on hand, up from 23 percent in 2004. And 84 percent of all college undergraduates had at least one card last year.

Before you pack a hospital bag for your baby's birth, be sure to call the hospital's billing department. You might have to pay for your child's arrival long before the first contraction.

If you're having a baby soon, you're probably thinking about money -- from how much you'll spend on diapers to what it will cost to send that kid to college. First up, of course, is what it will cost to bring your baby into the world. And some hospitals are asking that you pay it up front.

Damon Scheleur, ParentDish's photo editor, found this out when he got paperwork in January from the New York hospital where his wife was due to give birth to their first child on April 15. It said the hospital, NYU Langone Medical Center, would estimate the costs not covered by his insurance and "collect this estimated payment prior to or at the time of admission."

Scheleur admits to feeling a little "freaked out," even though the family has good health insurance coverage.

"In this day and age, can you trust people?" he says. "I'm not going to hand over two grand without first getting something done."

American households are spending more money staying in with their electronic gadgets than going out. In fact, we're spending almost $1,000 per person every year on cable TV, Internet and video games.