Author: Kara

This morning I slept an hour past my alarm. I set my alarm for 8:00 every morning and try really hard to stick to getting up out of bed within 15 minutes of it. I love sleep and these cold winter mornings (mid-thirties in Austin- that’s freezing here!), it can be brutal to get out […]

I was hanging out the other night, scrolling through my Mint app and having a grand old time congratulating myself on the progress I’ve made so far this month on my loans. I was feeling pretty optimistic about what I’d been able to do thus far in 2015 and scheming about my payoff abilities in coming months. “If […]

As I am more than halfway through this no-spend month, I figured it was time for another update! How is no-spend February going deep in the heart of Texas? Sunset over my city! KaraKara Perez is the original founder of From Frugal To Free. She is a money expert, speaker and founder of Bravely Go, a […]

The longer I go with debt payoff being my numero uno priority, the more I notice that my lifestyle and financial priorities are not the same as my friends and general peer group. Some of this is, I believe, due to living in Austin. Austin is a young town where lots of people are either […]

I spend a fair amount of time fantasizing what it’ll be like to be debt free. I imagine I’ll feel lighter and finally free when that day arrives. I have been dreading these loans since my senior year of college, 2010-2011. I realized that I was going to be shackled to 25K for ten years […]

I mention occasionally that bringing home catering leftovers is a big way for me to save money. My nickname with my catering company is ‘zero waste’. I don’t like to see food thrown away in general and I capitalize on every event as a chance to eat for free. I love the amount of money I […]

I am officially one week into my No-Spend February and I thought I would update everyone on how this challenge is going. Newsflash: almost nothing in my life has changed! Turns out I already sort of live a no spend lifestyle. The only money I have spent thus far is $12.00 for gas. When coaching I […]

Hello February! January seemed to fly by and to take forever…is that possible? I had a busy month with some great highs and a low or two. I definitely spent a lot more than I intended to in the areas of entertainment and food. More importantly though, I had a great month when it came to […]

Yesterday I pulled the trigger on my first financial Smart or Dumb decision. Was I going to take a trip to San Diego in May with my best friends from home, incurring some major expenses along the way? Or was I going to save that money and continue with my debt pay off plan and […]

This past weekend was my boyfriend’s birthday. The big 2-5! We, along with another friend, drove three hours to Houston to spend Friday night and Saturday day. One of my roommates/bestie recently moved there for a new job. She was a friend of my boyfriend before we began dating and actually introduced us, so it […]