A program you can't afford to miss...

Whether you are a mom or just have a friend or family member who is...you simply cannot afford not to be apart of upromise. Upromise is an absolutely free, absolutely wonderful program that allows you to save for your children's (or niece and nephew, or godchild, or just a child of a friend or coworker) college. With college costs as high as they are, why would anyone not want to store away money by doing the everyday things we already do? Once you sign up for Upromise you will be given the opportunity to register your credit/debit cards as well as your grocery and pharmacy cards. In my neck of the woods, the stores participating are CVS, Bi-Lo, Food Lion, Harris Teeter and Netgrocer. So essentially when I make my grocery run to the local Harris Teeter (all the while earning money cuz I do mystery shops there too) and use my coupons (that are doubled every single day and tripled about once a month here lately) I can also save even more on select items. When I say select I dont mean just a few; there are hundreds of items and brands that contribute a portion of their sales to your child's college education. Just a sample of what these companies are: Huggies, Cottonelle, Nestle Toll House, Fisher Salad Buddies, Marzetti Frozen Breads and salad dressings, Nestle candy bars, Snyders of Hanover products and the list goes on and on. Any of those products get purchased in your house??? If so, why on earth not let them pay you to purchase them?

In addition to the grocery and drug store savings that you get you also earn money for dining out using your credit or debit card and shopping online through their website. The online shopping is much the same as it is with Mr. Rebates, Ebates, and Cashbaq except with the money going directly into your child's college savings account rather than back to you right away. Whatever way you decide to do your online shopping make sure you are at least using on of these methods to save the most money. As for the dining out part, certain restaurants participate and to find out what restaurants participate in your area you will have to log on and enter your zip code.

Also, you can currently link your Sunglass Hut and McDonald's Arch cards to your account and save money that way too. My personal thought is that if you know you are going to be eating at McDonalds or shopping at Sunglass Hut, go ahead and purchase the gift card, register it on your account and then use it to make your purchase. You didn't spend any extra money to get the giftcard but you did save money for college. Currently these are the only 2 giftcard option available but the site does say that they will be adding more soon.

Finally, you can link your child's school to your Upromise account and help them earn money while you save too! You'll have to check to see if your school is participating (my son's is not currently but hopefully this upcoming year they will start) but if they are go ahead and link up and start helping your school make up for the budget shortfalls.