How to Save for Your Child's College Early

hopefully have much of her college saved for.

As a new mom, I am just learning the ropes to parenting. One thing that I know is that I want to help my child financially for college. My parents helped me by saving money with the MET (Michigan Education Trust) program which was an amazing help for when it was time to go to college. Before Adalyn was born, we looked into college saving plans and decided to start saving with the 529 savings plan.

We are contributing a certain amount of money each month and my parents are as well to help out. That way, once Adalyn is ready to go to college, it does not seem like such a huge amount and we will hopefully have much of her college saved for.

Saving for college is not always easy so I wanted to share some of my tips to save money so it does not seem like you are cutting too much out of your budget.

• Start when the child is young- You may think that I am crazy for starting to save already but guess what? College is expensive. Troy and I could no way afford a yearly tuition all at one time. By starting super early, we can contribute what we can afford and eventually, it will grow to a lot of money. Also, by starting early the money will have compounded growth over time.

• Contribute monthly- It doesn't matter if you can contribute $20 or $200 per month, I recommend trying to make a monthly contribution to your child's account. If you budget this money out monthly, you don't have to worry too much about where you are going to take the money from.

• Skip the latte- Coffee drinks add up to a lot of money if you purchase them often. At about $5 each, if you buy 1 per day, you are spending $35 per week. That is a lot of money. Make this a treat instead of a daily occurrence and make your coffee at home instead. If you only go out once a week, this saves $30 per week or $120 per month. Right there, that would be an amazing contribution to your child's college savings.

• Use coupons- I use coupons for EVERYTHING. Purchases online, the grocery store, restaurants, etc. My favorite app to save me money is RetailMeNot.com where I look for coupon codes or in-store coupons to save money on my purchases. Also, Ebates gives you money back on your purchases. I use these two sites for every single online purchase I make.

• Eat at home- I love to go out to eat but try to make it not that often and only go when the food is not too expensive or when I have a coupon, Groupon, etc. We try to eat at home almost everyday and pack our breakfast and lunches for work instead of eating out.

• Check out your state's 529 plan- This plan is what we chose and our money is able to grow with interest tax free.