Save For College -Without Touching Your Budget.

If you are new to WorkingMom.com, We welcome you to our Special Reports Newsletter. WorkingMom.com brings you printable grocery coupons, (Here’s what’s new this week) the ever-popular grocery list, and a host of timesaving checklists. Perhaps more importantly, WorkingMom encourages prayer. Bottom line: to give 100% on the job and 100% to your family simultaneously, you’re going to need a miracle to pull it off. (Anyone who tells you different is selling something.) The most important thing WorkingMom.com will ever do is bring you and your family closer to the Source of help. Over a quarter of a million people visit WorkingMom.com every year and think our checklists, coupons and desktop deals are great, (so do we) but don’t forget about the most useful tool you’ve got. It’s far more effective than wishing, hoping and stressing about the things you need –pray to God about them.

One of the reasons most of us work so hard (and pray so fervently) is to ensure that our children get a good education, and ultimately go to a good college. In keeping with our mission; WorkingMom has researched a way to help you accomplish this goal –upromise is now better than ever.

By now you’ve already discovered that barely a day goes by without the need to spend money on something. Just imagine if you had a nickel for every dollar you've spent over the years....but now you don’t have to imagine because it’s possible with upromise.

Have you have noticed little stickers on the grocery store shelves, in the Sunday paper coupons, on products you use and even on some big name websites lately? (Like http://www.WorkingMom.com) Even if you signed up for upromise it a long time ago, you might not be getting all the savings you could from it. So think of me as your big sister, walking you through the how-to steps of a way to save for college without cutting into your budget. Here’s my report:

“Upromise” gives consumers a percentage back on the qualified products they buy. Manufacturers join the upromise network and display the upromise logo on their products because it gives them a big loyal customer base. Basically, when all other things are equal, customers in the upromise network tend to lean towards purchasing qualified products –since a percentage goes into their college savings account! There are two primary reasons this program has been so successful:

-It is tracked electronically. No receipts to submit, no coupons to clip.

-It costs you, the customer or consumer nothing.

We’ve done a great deal of research on upromise and these are the things you need to know:

• First of all, look around their website for yourself and see how many big name companies participate:

  The way to save for college - Upromise.com

• It will take about 5 minutes to go through the complete sign-up process. The first screen asks for your standard information, such as your name, address, phone number and email.

• To get even more savings, the next screen will give you the option of applying for the Upromise credit card. If you don’t want another credit card, you can scroll down to the bottom and click on No, thanks. Skip this step. Then proceed onto the next one.

• Next it will give you the option to register you current credit cards. You can also skip that step if you are reluctant to enter your credit cards until you get to know the company better. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on No, thanks. Skip this step.

• Now comes my favorite part, enter your grocery shopper’s discount card numbers. Even if you don’t have your cards in front of you when you first register, you can still go back into your account and add them later. Every time you buy one of the upromise items at your regular store and swipe your savings card, a percentage of the sale will be credited to your upromise account! And the best part is that you don’t have to expend any time or energy to start saving for college. Your ordinary grocery shopping will now start building a future education for your kids.

• Next, is an option to download the “Remind U” toolbar that can redirect your online shopping through the upromise site; so you won’t miss any opportunities to save when you shop online….Let me quote the WorkingMom.com IT Consultant, Pete Vega: “I don’t recommend anyone install something they don’t know how to uninstall.” Keep in mind, upromise has a great reputation, and millions of people and thousands of reputable companies participate in it, but most likely, you don’t need a browser helper. However, if you are an advanced computer user, it might be something you would want on your toolbar. But for most people, you can just scroll down to the bottom and click on No, thanks. Skip this step.

• This is another of my favorite parts of the registration process. This is the screen where you add in the names and birthdates of the kids you’re saving for. (You can also save for yourself if you’re pursuing higher education!) If you aren’t sure of the birthdates of the kids you’d like to save for, you can skip this step and enter it in later, but the good news is that your savings will still accrue….just as usual.

• Family and Friends. The idea is sound; in fact, it could exponentially increase your savings. Doubling, tripling or even quadrupling what you save. Nevertheless, we suggest you forward your family and friends a copy of this newsletter (or send them a link to the online version) rather share their email address with a third party or send them a computer generated letter. If you forward them a copy of this WorkingMom Special Report on College Savings, it will make it clear how easy it will be for them to do a good deed, namely help you save for college. Not to mention it’s not too nice to give out someone else’s email address to a third party. Therefore, you might just consider scrolling down to the bottom of the family and friends screen and clicking on No, thanks. Skip this step. Here’s a link to the online version of this newsletter: http://workingmom.com/newsletters/October06-Saving_For_College.htm

• Finally, the last page is the “Review your Savings Profile” page. You’re done! It’ll give you the option of joining a 529 plan, but you can do it later because by now, you’re officially saving for college. Helpful hint, whenever you are planning to shop online, it makes sense to check out the upromise website to see if they have retail links to the store where you’re planning to shop. When you start at the upromise site, your online purchases with participating retailers will automatically send rebates to your upromise Account.

And that’s it! This is what all those little blue stickers are all about. Be sure to periodically log on to your upromise account so you can watch your savings grow. It’s just like those old maxims say:

“Every little bit helps….”

“Pennies make dollars….

“It all adds up!”

Upromise is an idea whose time has come. In a nutshell, we’re happy to report that finally, technology works for you.

Join Upromise today to get a $2 college-savings Jump Start!

Just enter upromise promo code cjpromo2 after you register your credit/debit card.

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