BusinessMore Money Less Stress 30Up Challenge

Our Daily Guide To The More Money, Less Stress Challenge

All month long, we'll be here to demystify your financial life.
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By 

Associate Business Editor, The Huffington Post

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Our More Money, Less Stress Challenge is in full swing and we’re on a journey to improve our relationship with money. Each day we’re sending out quick challenges, tips and hacks to help demystify your financial life and break down everything you need to know about money.

In case you’ve missed any of the daily newsletters or challenges, we’ve listed them all here for quick and easy reference.

Still want to sign up? Do it here!

Day 1

What to do: Face your credit score. Use a site like annualcreditreport.com to look up your score (the site is government-sanctioned and you're entitled by law to one free credit report every year) and learn what you can do to bolster yours.

Important reading: 6 Things You Should Know About Your Credit Score

Day 2

What to do: Review the ATM fees you’ve been paying over the past year. Set some goals to get those numbers down!

Important reading: I Just Racked Up $26 In ATM Fees And I Want To Die

Day 3

What to do: Reevaluate your student loan repayment plan. If an income-based payment plan is right for you, get in touch with your loan provider and head over to the Education Department’s website to estimate what your payments will be based on your financial situation.

Important reading: The Easiest Way To Reduce Your Student Loan Payment

Day 4

What to do: Review your paperwork and determine whether you need a professional to do your taxes. If you’ve had any big changes in your life — like starting a business or getting married — you might want to consider hiring someone.

Important reading: 7 Reasons Why You Should (And Shouldn't) File Your Own Taxes

Day 5

What to do: Learn what your money personality is! Are you a hoarder, an avoider or a spender? It's important to face up to your habits so you can start making real changes.

Important reading: Take This Quiz To Find Out What Kind Of Spender You Are

Day 6

What to do: Get acquainted with your flex spending account, or FSA. In addition to paying for prescriptions and copays, some FSAs will even cover mass transit and child care costs, so you could be saving thousands of dollars a year! 

Important reading: How Much Should I Put In My FSA This Year?

Day 7

What to do: Develop smarter shopping habits. Don't reach for that pre-washed salad and buy your own lettuce instead. Ask for a rain check for sale items at the grocery store.

Important reading: 20 Simple Ways To Save Money On Groceries

Day 8

What to do: Take a hard look at your rent. Should you find a cheaper apartment and put that extra money toward your savings instead? Conventional wisdom recommends spending no more than 30 percent of your income on rent; use that as a starting point and figure out what works best for you.

Important reading: There's No Golden Rule For How Much You Should Spend On Rent

Day 9

What to do: Start an emergency fund for yourself if you don't have one. Don't make only minimum payments on your credit card and don't let yourself fall behind on bills. Set aside money each month so you build up enough to live half a year without anyone’s help.

Important reading: A Story Of A F*ck Off Fund

Day 10

What to do: Check your 401(k). Are you increasing your contribution every year? Are you maximizing it to get a dollar match from your company, if it's offered? (It’s free money after all!) 

Important reading: You Should Basically Never Check Your 401(k) Statement

Day 11

What to do: Set aside time to have some important conversations about money with the different people in your life: your partner, your friends, your financial advisor and even your boss

Important reading: The 5 People You Need To Talk To About Money Now

Day 12

What to do: Reflect on how fulfilled you are by your purchases. Are those impulse buys are truly making you happy, or are they just short-term fixes for something else you’re looking for? The more your purchases match your personality, the happier you’ll be.

Important reading: Extroverts Would Be Happier If They Spent Money This Way

Day 13

What to do: Start planning what could be the cheapest and best trip of your life. Check out our tip son how to snag the cheapest plane tickets, book a multi-city trip, and get the most out of travel rewards cards.

Important reading: 9 Money-Saving Tricks Every Traveler Should Know

Day 14

What to do: When you're going out with friends who make more than you, be honest about what you're comfortable spending. It'll help make your friendship stronger — and you won't feel like you've overstretched your budget.

Important reading: How To Hang Out With Rich Friends Without Going Broke

Day 15

What to do: Understand where your taxes go. You've got until the 18th to file your taxes!

Important reading: Here's Where Your Taxes Go

Day 16

What to do: Read up on how travel can do wonders for your mood and your productivity at work. Hunt around for cheap trips — it's a great way to use that tax refund!

Important reading: Why Traveling Is The Smartest Way To Spend Your Tax Refund

Day 17

What to do: Stop over paying for basic necessities like toilet paper and trash bags. Know when you should be buying in bulk, and plan your purchases ahead to save money.

Important reading: 21 Super Practical Things You Should Buy In Bulk For Your Home

Day 18

What to do: Learn how to be smart about investing. You don't need to make bank to do it, and there are many cost-effective ways to get the most out of the money you're able to put down.

Important reading: How To Start Investing For Less Than $100

Day 19

What to do: Determine what to prioritize if you want to buy a home. Do you need to boost your credit score? Do you have enough for a down payment? That dream home doesn't have to be a dream anymore.

Important reading: How To Own A Home Before You're 30, According to Real Estate Experts

Day 20

What to do: Try a spending fast over the weekend, during which you only buy the things you really need and build up savings to free yourself from debt and loans. Once you're comfortable, extend to a month-long or even year-long fast!

Important reading: How A Spending Fast Helped One Woman Get Out Of $24,000 In Debt

Day 21

What to do: There are times when it's smarter to not use the plastic. Learn when to use a credit card and when you should opt for cash instead.

Important reading: Should You Use Cash Or Credit?

Day 22

What to do: Stop burning money with your smartphone. Figure out when to turn on WiFi, which apps are sucking up your data and how you can reduce your phone bill.

Important reading: How To Save Money On Your Data Plan

Day 23

What to do: Pull up your bank statements and check that you can account for every purchase and transaction. Keep an eye out for any activity that you don't recognize. 

Important reading: How To Protect Yourself From Card Skimming

Day 24

What to do: Stop paying those pesky fees on Venmo, or another payment app. That means linking the app to a debit card or your bank account, rather than a credit card.

Important reading: Why Venmo, And Every App Like It, Is So Annoying To Use

Day 25

What to do: Start a money diary or download a money tracker app. Take note of your spending habits over the next few weeks and decide which ones have got to go!

Important reading: 5 Things I Learned From Writing Down Every Dollar I Spent

Day 26

What to do: Calculate what your bar tabs add up to. Are you spending too much every month on partying?

Important reading: The True Cost Of Wasting Money On Getting Wasted

Day 27

What to do: Identify the aspects of your finances that are making you stressed. See if there are programs from your employer or your bank that could help alleviate some of those burdens.

Important reading: Financial Stress Surging Among Millennials 

Day 28

What to do: Open the bathroom cabinet and calculate how much you and your partner are each spending each month. If there’s a big difference, consider balancing costs out in another aspect of your shared life, like groceries.

Important reading: It Is Way More Expensive To Be My Girlfriend Than It Is To Be Me

Day 29

What to do: Set a target for how much you want to save, and increase it next month. Saving doesn't have to be a chore!

Important reading: 11 Easy Ways To Save Money

Day 30

What to do: Understand where your money is really going, especially when it comes to your major expenses. Budgeting can help knock off $400 from your balance, but the biggest strains on your wallet are things like housing, college and health care. Make sure you've got those covered!

Important reading: Why Your Fancy Banking App Isn't Helping You Budget Better

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Before You Go

5 Kitchen Tools That Will Save You Money
Restaurant-Style Cheese Grater(01 of05)
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Pregrated cheese may be convenient, but if you aren't going to use the entire container within a week, it will probably start to go bad. The solution: a quality cheese grater (about $17) and a block of cheese.

How it'll save you: If you buy a half-pound block of, say, imported Parmigiano-Reggiano, aged two years (about $9), it'll keep in your fridge for up to three months, and you can grate however much you want as you need it. (Bonus: You'll score points in the authenticity department, since we've yet to meet an Italian who doesn't sprinkle his or her pasta with just-grated cheese.)
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Kitchen Shears(02 of05)
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You probably know that buying a whole chicken is significantly cheaper than purchasing separate breasts, legs and thighs (to be specific, the average cost of a whole chicken is about $1.50 per pound; while boneless, skinless chicken breasts cost about $3.50 per pound). If you're thinking, "Yes, but cutting up a chicken is such a pain in the neck," then you haven't tried doing it with poultry shears ($10 to $20).

How they'll save you: You won't hesitate to take on the whole bird if you have shears. Their tapered, serrated blades will make you feel like an accomplished surgeon when trimming, cutting and dividing any type of poultry, from chicken to turkey. Plus, you can make stock with the unused parts, such as the backbone.
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Oil Dispenser(03 of05)
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It's all in the pour. While many bottles of olive oil do have some sort of spout (so the oil doesn't just glug out in huge amounts), oil dispensers ($3 to $10) -- which you can use for any oil, from olive to grape-seed to sesame -- allow for precision pouring.

How it'll save you: They're outfitted with nozzles that carefully control the flow of liquid, so you can drizzle the "sunlight in a bottle" on salads and other dishes, or easily use exact amounts, minimizing overpouring and drips. The other reason these bottles are economical: You can purchase olive oil in a large tin can (a 3-liter container can cost around $56, so you pay about 55 cents an ounce, versus, say, a 17-ounce glass bottle that costs $13.50, which comes out to 80 cents an ounce). Then, decant the oil into your dispenser as needed. Just store it in a cabinet to keep it away from sunlight.
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Pineapple Slicer & Dicer(04 of05)
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We're sometimes skeptical of single-use tools, but there are times when they're worth it. The cost difference between buying a whole pineapple and cutting it yourself and paying for precut rings or chunks is significant enough to qualify: an 8-ounce container of pineapple chunks costs about $3, while you can get five times that amount—about 40 ounces of the fruit—for $5, or even less if you buy a whole fruit (it's a difference of 38 cents an ounce versus 13 cents an ounce). A pineapple slicer and dicer ($20) makes quick work of the prickly-skinned produce. (As with the other tools, you'll want to make sure you're going to use this more than once to make the savings worth it.)

How it'll save you: There won't be nearly as much waste as there is when you attempt the job with a knife. You insert a shaft into the top of a trimmed pineapple, press down lightly and twist; the flesh will come right out of the peel, and then you can slide the dicer down the stack of rings (or leave them whole).
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Mason Jar(05 of05)
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The glass jar with a lid (about $1.50) is one versatile item in the kitchen. And not because it makes everything from salads to soups look better (a trend we hope sticks around).

How it'll save you: Beyond canning and storing food, these containers are ideal for making and storing your own salad dressing. Load the ingredients in, screw the lid on and shake; when you've used it all up, the oil-slicked glass jar is much easier to clean and reuse than a plastic container would be, and you'll have spent much less to dress your salad than you would have if you'd gone the premade route. Plus, they're also great for whipping warm milk for a homemade latte, so you can make a $4 coffee for a fraction of the cost.
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