A few years ago, my husband's coworker told us about a save-for-college program called Upromise. Save money for college when you buy your milk? When you bid on Ebay? When you buy a sweater from L.L. Bean? When you eat at Perkins ... or the Fuel Cafe? Too good to be true? No it is not.
UPromise
With Upromise, you earn money when you:
* Shop for groceries.
Go to Pick-n-Save, use your Pick-n-Save card, and money goes to your kids - usually pennies - from 5 to 30 cents at a time. And all you do is buy food that has the blue Upromise sticker next to the product name (or look at the product list on the web site). The product company then donates a percentage of the price to your child's Upromise account. If there are multiple children, Upromise splits the amount up.
* Shop online.
When you spend your normal fortune around Christmas (or anytime of year), shop online. The stores donate 2-5 percent of what you spend to the Upromise account. This adds up!
* eat out.
Every time you eat at restaurants like John Hawk’s, or Perkins, or Mimas and use a credit card, the restaurant donates 4-8 percent of the bill to Upromise. Upromise has an extensive list of restaurants in the Milwaukee area.
You can also have grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends shop in your child's name. You simply send them an invitation, they sign up, and the money they spend when they shop or eat out goes to your kids. Pennies from everywhere!
Now, I wonder. In 2020, what will the price of college be? I don't want to know.
