Kate Nesi developed an aversion to credit cards working as a bank teller as a teenager.
But her savvy spending habits didnt prevent her from getting into debt.
She graduated from college in 2004 with just $10,000 in student loans.
A graduation photo of Chris and Kate, who both graduated from William Paterson University in 2004. When they married in 2008, Kate had $42,000 in debt, Chris had close to $40,000 of his own loans from college and they owned a house together that they’d purchased for $200,000. Photo courtesy of Kate Nesi
But she soon took out another $32,000 to complete a one-year masters program in library science.
Telling the story, she laughed.
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When the economy crashed in 2008, the value of their house dropped dramatically.
Kate admits she was against getting rid of cable at first.
Could she live without The Real Housewives and the evening news?
But after a while, she realized she could survive without it.
They also cut back on energy usage.
She and Chris bonded over theirlifestyle changes, but they lost a lot of friends.
Their peers wanted to go out instead of opening a bottle of wine at home.
Many stopped coming over, because they didnt have cable to watch big sporting events.
[Being frugal] was not something everyone was doing, Kate said.
We were too scared to talk about it because of how people treated us.
It was a weird, shameful thing then.
The couple had already sold their books, movies and games.
This go-round, we had nothing left to sell, Nesi said.
We werent good cooks at the time, she confessed.
We asked for [grocery store] gift cards at the holidays.
The Nesis put student loan repayment on hold in December 2011 but resumed their quest soon after.
They finished paying off their student loans in summer 2012.
They didnt have an emergency fund to fall back on at that time.
Their philosophy for loan repayment was, Just keep sending them everything you have.
The couple had one more obstacle before they could really start thinking about their financial future: their house.
When the economy crashed, the value of the house dropped below what they owed.
Chris has a side hustle as a podcast editor and producer.
Kates side hustle is a photography business that she started in 2009.
But they still find ways to set money aside for fun.
The rule in her household: Side-hustle money is your own money, Nesi said.
We have allowances [from the main budget], and then we have our own money.
The frugal mom hopes to instill in her children the same habits she and Chris have embraced.
Her sons, 6 and 2, see her sitting down to pay bills.
But its still a long haul to get their finances set up for the future.
Theyre even going on their first vacation as a family this year.
We havent gone on vacation since our honeymoon, she said.
Lisa Rowan is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
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