Whether you are a student or a parent, it is important to be a step ahead and start saving for college tuition. There’s no escaping the fact that college tuition prices are increasing. Depending on the type of college, the average tuition price has gone up over $1,000 from 2009-2010. Average tuition fees for private 4-year colleges are over $25,000 a year. That’s over $100,000 for all four years. If you’re not smart about saving for the future, you could find yourself in digging into your loose coin collection to help pay children’s college.

Upromise is an online company that was started in 2001 which focuses on providing their members with additional source of college funding contributions. Members earn rebate or contribution from grocery, gasoline, and other purchases. They also earn additional rebate or contribution when they shop online through Upromise shopping portal. It is completely free to sign up and members can start earning rebates and contributions immediately. Members can use the funds they accumulated to pay for college tuition and pay down eligible studen loans. Upromise has contributed over $450 million to their members’ college savings accounts.

When a parent or guardian opens a Upromise account, they can register their child to the account and all the monies that’s earned can be used towards college tuition. The parent can also register their credit card or debit card and grocery membership card and every time those cards are used that the specified merchant, money is earned. The monies earned may not amount to much, but over the course of 15-20 years, it might be enough to help offset some of the total college costs.

Upromise will be even more beneficial to those who enjoy shopping online. By shopping through Upromise shopping portal, you earn additional rebates when making a purchase online. Since more people are shopping online nowadays, it only makes earning that much easier.

If you’re like me, I hate to carry loose change around. Whenever I need extra coins to pay for an item in exact amount, I always ask my girlfriend if she has a quarter or a nickel and she never fails me. Women have it so easy since all they have to do is throw the change into their purses and be done with it. Guys, on the other hand only have their pants pockets to put their change in. Couple that with your wallet and cell phone, your pockets are unattractively and uncomfortably bulging out, hindering the way you may walk, not to mention the clanging noises made from your coins. It’s just not a comfortable situation to be in.

At the end of the day, I put all my coins in a jar or some kind of collection plate where they are easily accessible for future use. I think over the past 10 years, the total value that accumulated is almost $1,000. That’s a lot of  loose coins. With the recent state of the economy, it seems like every penny matters. What good ‘ole Mr. Franklin said couple hundred years back seems true and logical nowadays, “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

I’m currently in the market for a new laptop and a new LED TV, so this money will help me offset the costs. I know it’s still my money, so technically speaking, I haven’t “saved” any money, but it sure does feel like it to me. It’s almost like finding a $20 bill in your pant’s back pocket.

Now, when you’ve collected as much coins as I have, you need to figure out how to cash in these coins. One easy option is to go to a grocery store where they have a Coinstar machine. These machines are very easy to use. All you have to do is dump all sorts of coins in there and it automatically counts the value for you. Then they give you cash, of course minus their fee which is 8.9 cents for every dollar counted. So for my case, if I have exactly $1,000 in coins, they will give me $911 back. If this fee is too much for you, another option Coinstar provides is to convert your coins into gift certificates for select retailers, such as Amazon.com. In this case, the conversion is 100%.

Additionally, you can always go to your local bank and have them convert them for you for fee. Not all banks provide this service so make sure you call them first.

Perhaps, you can start “saving” money by collecting your loose coins today.