Day 17
AVOID the universal default clause
Credit card companies “can troll the Internet to see if you’re late on other payments, so they can raise the interest rate on your card—even if you weren’t late paying them,” Bach says. Call your company to make sure they don’t do this.

Day 18
open your junk mail
Use new credit card offers to negotiate lower interest rates or better terms with your current one. Call the customer-service line on the back of the card and actually read them the offer, Bach says. Chances are, they’ll help you out in order to keep your business.

Day 19
Never take on anything that eats!
This means babies, pets, loafing boyfriends, etc. Food is expensive. So hike down to the bodega and buy yourself a box of condoms. And wait on that dog until you pay off the Visa.

Day 20
Create a paper trail
If you’re falling behind on payments, reach out to your creditors and service providers and create a paper trail that proves you’ve tried to work with them on a payment plan, Bach says. “God forbid you go bankrupt—you’ll have to prove that you tried to work with your lenders,” he says.

Day 21
invest green
If you want to jump on a bandwagon, choose wisely—“green investing is the next wave,” says Bach. Some funds pay upwards of 20%–30%—see winslowgreen.com.

Day 22
Make bank FRIENDS
Banks do it all: home loans, personal financial plan. “They’re there to work with you,” Bach says. Go to your bank and introduce yourself to the manager, Bach urges. “Ask them to preapprove you for a home loan. If you’re a renter, they can find out how long it would take you to qualify.”

Day 23
CONSIDER an online savings account
Online savings accounts are paying interest at 3.5%, 4%, 4.5%—great rates. The ING Orange (ingdirect.com) account is a great example. And some even give cash rewards. Most banks also have online savings accounts that pay—HSBC is paying 4.25%.

Day 24-25
save on transport
If you own a car, review your auto-insurance policies. According to Costa, raising your deductible to $1,000 can save hundreds in annual premiums “because the likelihood is that you will file fewer claims,” Costa says. (And Bach swears by Geico, BTW.) If you take the train, sign up for TransitChek, a program that deducts transportation costs from your pretax earnings. If your company doesn’t participate, give them a nudge (transitcenter.com/employees).

Day 26
Consolidate your insurance
Shop your insurance rates around. If you’ve got auto with one and homeowner’s with another, you can often get good rates if you bundle them together, Diehl says. At firms like Allstate and State Farm, you can pretty much get everything—including a single bill.

Day 27
Have an emergency fund
What if you lose your job or your boiler craps out? This account should be large enough to cover three to six months’ worth of living expenses, says Costa. A perfect place to stash this money is in an online savings account, like ING. Start small—put in 20 bucks a week.

Day 28
Use your employer’s flexible spending account
This allows you to put money aside for health- and child-care expenses—pretax. Survey the coming year: “Going to the dentist? Need contacts? Laser eye surgery?” Costa asks. Be warned: If you don’t use this money, you can lose it.

Day 29
Prepare for your own death
Get a will in place—you’ll need a lawyer. Check with your employer to see if the beneficiary on your life-insurance policy is still appropriate—is it your spouse or is it still your dad?

Day 30
Get a financial book and really read it
Corey is all about self-education. “No one will care about my money more than I do,” he says. So he taught himself how to invest without a brokerage. He checks out sites like the Motley Fool (fool.com) to see “where my money should be.”

Day 31
You’re finally ready to start building toward those millions. Now buy us a drink, you cheap bastard.

Bonus tips

Pay with exact change
And when you don't, save it for a rainy day. Corey carried around an old-man change purse, kept his change and actually USED it. "Think of all those dollars you'll save breaking." 

Try your hand at being a slumlord
Troll Craigslist and find a good apartment—then take the lease yourself. Rent out the rooms for more than an equal share, and you reduce your own rent. Corey does the same thing in the apartment building he owns—and actually makes a profit on the property, while living there, by renting out the other bedrooms.