When did you start saving for your childs college tuition?

We were never able to save for our children's college educations. They grew up in the 70's when economic times were very similar to what they are now. My husband was self-employed, work was scarce, and getting paid for the work he did was even rarer. We had to trust God to feed us from week to week, which He did. All 3 of our children went to college and 2 of them have advanced degrees. When they finished, we and they were debt free. They worked, they earned scholarships, and not one of them was able to finish in 4 years, but finish they did. God was faithful to us. One other thing I would share with those who are concerned about paying for their children's college educations: those who have to work and help pay for it study harder and take more pride in what they are doing than those who simply have their parents foot the bill. We saw it over and over again. What looks like a curse can actually be a blessing.

Wish we had the money to save for their education. Right now we're just trying to stay even on our bills.

We aren't. We feel they should earn it. If they get good grades they can earn it through the A+ program, and scholarships. After those get used then they can take out student loans. Our sons aren't entitled to a free ride. We weren't, and we are doing very well, and we feel our boys can handle it. They all do very well in school and we stay after them, and help them too.
We plan to help them with other things, but we want them to learn to stand on their own. We see so many kids getting handed everything, and then ending up back home with Mom, and Dad because they didn't care about it because they didn't have to work for it....

When they were born, but when we hit tough times we stopped. There's a little there, but not enough to cover even one semester. Our oldest dd is in college now and does not want student loan debt when she graduates. We don't want that for her either (it took years for us to pay our school loans off), and so we are now in a position to help her as much as we can. The competition for scholarships is tough, even for the best students (and my dd has always been an excellent student), and I wish we'd been able to save more for her education than we did. That money goes fast, college is so expensive.

My oldest we started when he was around 10. My younger 2 we started when they were born. My oldest we kept upping it. Now we save $300 every month. My younger 2 are less. My oldest is a senior now. Colleges are ridiculous. The state schools are 18K, but my son doesn't have the grades for a NY state school. They are so competitive. The private schools are at LEAST 40K per year. We plan to sell stock to pay for it. He's gotten accepted to 5 so far, every school gave around $6-7k in merit scholarships. We will see about Federal grants in January. I really don't want him to start out with a loan that size. It would be an $160 loan!! Like a mortgage! If he had a loan, I would like him to move home, find a job and stay home until the loan is paid off.

I opened a savings account when my daughter was born. I was putting away a few hundred dollars a month for a little while, but my business is doing about a third of what it used to, so I've been unable to add to the account at all this year. Still, it'll be something for when she needs it.

I haven't yet because I can't afford to. When I can I will put away whatever I can afford to help him out.

havent yet. we have set up Gerber life policies for both of them that can be borrowed against or cashed out for college. its about $35 a month for both kids. it'll only be about $4000 each, but its better than nothing!

Never have been able to. As a single parent, every penny goes towards needs and bills. There is nothing left over for extra's. He can pay for college like I am, through grants, scholarships and loans. There are BILLIONS of dollars in grants and scholarships available, if people are willing to look for them. Here are 2 websites to do that.

www.fastweb.com
www.scholarship.com

set up profiles for your child and they will send you scholarship and grant notifications. Some are needs based, some are just writing an essay, some are for being certain ethnic backgrounds and some are for hobbies, sports or where the parent works.