Students paying their own way through college have always had a difficult task, but now it is getting harder even for parents who wish to provide an education for their children, USA Today reported.

According to financial aid provider Sallie Mae's How Americans Pay for College report released Tuesday, grants and scholarships were the most common way to fund a college education. Four years ago, half of the nation's families used grants and scholarships for college, now two-thirds do.

Parents have also begun giving less to their children to cover the cost of school. The report showed 27 percent of parents are contributing, when 37 percent had done so in 2010.

"The post-recession reality is (parents) don't have the income and savings," says Sarah Ducich, senior vice president of public policy at Sallie Mae. "It's not that they're not willing to stretch. It's that they don't think they have the money to do that."

The study also showed that parents have been limiting their children's choice of school based on price. Nearly 70 percent of families eliminated schools during the application process for the cost per year being too high. In 2008, 58 percent of families had done so.

Lorrie Ortega, mother of a rising senior at Texas A&M University and a 13-year-old son, benefitted from Texas' Guaranteed Tuition Plan. Thanks to the grant, she is able to afford tuition for her children. She said she did not want to have to resort to taking out student loans, leaving her children in debt when they graduated.

Ducich said she worried that not enough families are planning or saving for their children's upcoming college tuition. Rising tuition costs and student loan interest rates seem to be intimidating families from making savings plans.

"We're just not seeing enough families plan," Ducich says. "There's a red flag that says some of these families are going to be surprised by the extra cost it's going to take to finish that degree. They're going to have to spend more and finance it in some way."