Welcome to the Budget Couple. We are Nate (Kid) and Danielle (Smalls) and we created this site to share our experiences in budgeting and financial management. We met in college and married once we were both done with our undergrads.  Since that time we have lived in four different states, visited a baker’s dozen of different countries, adopted two dogs, had a baby boy, and purchased two cars and one house. It has been a wild ride, but we wouldn’t change it for anything.

Beginnings

We have both always been savers. Danielle socked away any birthday money she received from an early age and Nate was able to save $10,000 before graduating high school.

When we got married we moved to Texas so that Danielle could finish her Masters’ degree. At the time of moving, Nate did not have a job lined up in Texas and Danielle made $15,000 as a teacher’s assistant. We didn’t have a plan for money when we got married and our first credit card bill totaled $600, which was a lot of money for us. It was then that we realized that we needed to come up with a plan for our money so that we didn’t have any surprises and money stress in the future.

The Budget

Our first budget was a little rough around the edges, but we found it to be an incredibly freeing experience. There was no longer any guesses about how much money we had coming in or out of the household. It took some time to get it right, but eventually we nailed down a reasonable, predictable budget. Knowledge is power, and understanding your finances is key to future success.

The original budget we created was made in Excel and was then printed and hung on the refrigerator. Each expense was physically written into its designated place and it allowed us to track every aspect of our spending. We kept a paper budget attached to our fridge for years until converting it over to a Google Sheet.

Why Share?

One thing that we are both passionate about is saving money and planning for our future. Our ability to make a financial plan and execute it has allowed us to travel the world and not have to worry about our finances. As we have evolved in our planning we have noticed that a lot of people have real difficulty controlling their finances. This website serves as a place for us to reflect, share, and grow in our financial walk.