Check out CLEP college credit. You take tests for around $80 a piece to, more/less.. test out of a college class and save a lot of money that would be otherwise used on tuition, books, and travel. Not to mention, if you manage to pass a test your saving yourself 3-6 months of going to a stupid class.. All the tests CLEP offers cover your basic courses.. but there's enough of them to earn the credit to receive an associates. The only catch, if you would even call it that, is that in order to get your degree.. you must take atleast one course from a college to finish your program and graduate because... you gotta graduate from somewhere right? So.. do your courses.. and then find the most prestigous college you can enrolled in which accepts their credits (and a lot of quality college accept these credits, because it was originally created for armed forces members), and get your degree.
Just something you might be interested in.. also, currently the path I'm taking.