Search Results for: an honest discussion

The Psychology of Sticking to a Budget, Part I

In the course of writing this blog, and teaching KOAB couponing classes, I've had the opportunity to talk to you about my struggles with finances. Not only does talking about it help to keep me on the straight and narrow, it's also taught me that … [Read more...]

Have You Changed Your Financial Life?

This past Shabbat, I got to spend time with an old friend, whom I haven't seen in forever. She started reading KOAB back in the beginning and has been a huge source of encouragement to me. Over Shabbat dinner, she told me the most amazing thing. … [Read more...]

How We Finally Finished Our Emergency Fund

Last week, I was telling you about how my husband and I had been working on building an emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses (since we're both freelancers, we were going for 6 months to give us some added security). Creating this emergency fund … [Read more...]

Why Saving for Our Emergency Fund Took More Than a Year

When I left off in my "honest discussion" saga last week, it was the summer of 2008 and my family had just boarded a plane bound for Kansas City from Tel Aviv. In January of that year, we had gotten serious about figuring out the financial mess we … [Read more...]

How We Paid Off $30,000 of Debt in Just 6 Months

Welcome to part 4 of my financial freedom series -- this is the story of how we got real about our finances and finally learned to live debt-free FOREVER. If you've been here before, you know that during this journey, we were living in Israel -- a … [Read more...]

How $1,000 Changed Our Lives

This is part three in the story of how my husband and I became debt free, built an emergency fund and embraced financial responsibility. If you haven't read the first two parts, you can do so here and here. When I last left you, my husband and I … [Read more...]

How We Owned Our Problem with Debt

Last week, I spilled my guts about the downward financial spiral my husband and I fell into just three years ago. I attributed our mounting debt to several factors: buying our apartment, financing several thousands of dollars of car repairs only to … [Read more...]

About Me

Welcome to Kosher on a Budget! I'm glad you found me! My name is Mara. I've been married for 21 years to Frankie, and together we have three children: two boys and one girl. My family lives in Israel, although we came here in a very round-about … [Read more...]

Why We Doubled Our Grocery Budget … And Why I’m Totally Okay With It

Confession time: I don't remember that last time I used a coupon at the grocery store. Eight years ago, when Frankie and I were deep in the process of building up our emergency fund and doing our best to eek a few extra dollars out of every … [Read more...]

How to Become a Freelance Writer & Boost Your Budget By Earning More Money

Long-time readers of KOAB may well remember my story of getting out of debt. One of the keys to our success was not just cutting expenses (although that was very important), but also increasing our income. For me, this meant taking on freelance … [Read more...]