https://katieandbenny.com/ Two lives, one adventure at a time. en Fri, 28 Aug 2026 12:28:08 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/where-our-money-actually-goes-on-adventures/ https://katieandbenny.com/where-our-money-actually-goes-on-adventures/ We used to think spending more meant experiencing more. Turns out, a lot of what we were paying for was just expensive anxiety relief. Here's the honest breakdown of what we've learned to spend on, what we've learned to skip, and the surprising places where going cheaper actually made things better. Katie & Benny Travel Fri, 28 Aug 2026 12:25:19 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/we-spent-money-trying-to-fix-our-life-together-honest-scorecard/ https://katieandbenny.com/we-spent-money-trying-to-fix-our-life-together-honest-scorecard/ Over the years, Katie and Benny have thrown money at a surprising number of problems — some real, some imagined. This is the unfiltered truth about what actually changed their daily life and what just made them feel like they were doing something about it. Katie & Benny Life & Work Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:25:19 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/everything-we-swore-wed-never-do-favorite-memories/ https://katieandbenny.com/everything-we-swore-wed-never-do-favorite-memories/ We used to have a very firm idea of what counted as a 'real' adventure. Turns out, the things we dismissed without a second thought ended up teaching us the most — about travel, about each other, and about the kind of people we actually are when nobody's watching. Katie & Benny Travel Thu, 27 Aug 2026 21:55:18 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/wrecked-itineraries-wrong-turns-trips-we-never-stop-talking-about/ https://katieandbenny.com/wrecked-itineraries-wrong-turns-trips-we-never-stop-talking-about/ We've planned some truly beautiful trips. Color-coded spreadsheets, reservation confirmations saved in three different places, backup plans for the backup plans. And somehow, almost none of those perfectly engineered moments are the ones we bring up at dinner parties. Katie & Benny Travel Thu, 27 Aug 2026 16:20:18 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/how-we-stopped-faking-enthusiasm-and-started-saying-no-without-the-drama/ https://katieandbenny.com/how-we-stopped-faking-enthusiasm-and-started-saying-no-without-the-drama/ For years, we were the couple who said yes to everything and quietly dreaded half of it. Learning to decline gracefully — without lying, over-explaining, or spiraling into guilt — genuinely changed our social lives for the better. Here's exactly how we do it now. Katie & Benny Life & Work Thu, 27 Aug 2026 12:30:26 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/things-we-started-never-finished-making-peace/ https://katieandbenny.com/things-we-started-never-finished-making-peace/ Our home is basically a museum of good intentions — a half-tiled bathroom, a novel draft collecting dust, a sourdough starter that died in the fridge. Turns out, the projects we never finished have taught us more about who we are than the ones we actually completed. Katie & Benny Life & Work Thu, 27 Aug 2026 08:40:22 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/one-of-us-had-a-dream-that-required-the-other-to-give-something-up/ https://katieandbenny.com/one-of-us-had-a-dream-that-required-the-other-to-give-something-up/ There's a version of this story where one of us says yes immediately and everything works out beautifully. That's not the version that actually happened. What really went down was messier, more honest, and ultimately more us. Katie & Benny Life & Work Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:30:27 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/what-our-closets-told-us-about-who-we-were-pretending-to-be/ https://katieandbenny.com/what-our-closets-told-us-about-who-we-were-pretending-to-be/ We thought decluttering was about making space. Turns out it was about getting honest. Going through our stuff — the clothes, the keepsakes, the random decor we'd moved three times without ever really looking at — cracked open some conversations we didn't know we needed to have. Katie & Benny Life & Work Wed, 26 Aug 2026 20:20:27 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/quiet-hobbies-best-part-of-our-relationship/ https://katieandbenny.com/quiet-hobbies-best-part-of-our-relationship/ We spent years chasing experiences worth posting about — and somehow missed the ones worth keeping. It turns out the most grounding parts of our relationship happened in the garden, at the kitchen counter, and over a board game we almost didn't buy. Katie & Benny Life & Work Wed, 26 Aug 2026 12:20:30 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/adventure-audit-stop-collecting-experiences-start-enjoying-them/ https://katieandbenny.com/adventure-audit-stop-collecting-experiences-start-enjoying-them/ For a while, Katie and Benny had a packed calendar and a camera roll full of highlights — and somehow still felt empty about it. It took an honest, slightly uncomfortable conversation to realize they weren't living their adventures so much as logging them. Here's what they did about it. Katie & Benny Life & Work Tue, 25 Aug 2026 16:20:28 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/solo-time-rules-that-saved-our-adventures/ https://katieandbenny.com/solo-time-rules-that-saved-our-adventures/ It took us an embarrassingly long time to figure out that needing space doesn't mean something is wrong. Once we stopped treating solo time like a red flag and started treating it like a resource, everything changed — the trips, the projects, and honestly, us. Katie & Benny Life & Work Tue, 25 Aug 2026 12:20:31 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/some-moments-arent-for-the-feed/ https://katieandbenny.com/some-moments-arent-for-the-feed/ We used to document everything. Then one afternoon in a tiny coastal town, Benny put his phone in his pocket and just... didn't take it back out. That small choice cracked something open for both of us — and honestly, it made our content better too. Katie & Benny Life & Work Tue, 25 Aug 2026 04:25:28 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/not-every-friendship-built-for-long-haul/ https://katieandbenny.com/not-every-friendship-built-for-long-haul/ We got really good at deciding which trips were worth our time and money. Then one day we realized we'd never applied that same rigor to the people in our lives. What happened next was uncomfortable, clarifying, and honestly kind of life-changing. Katie & Benny Life & Work Tue, 25 Aug 2026 00:25:28 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/stop-splitting-every-trip-down-the-middle/ https://katieandbenny.com/stop-splitting-every-trip-down-the-middle/ Compromise sounds like the mature, loving thing to do — but when it comes to planning adventures together, it might be quietly killing the magic. Katie and Benny tried a different approach, and it changed everything about how they travel as a couple. Katie & Benny Travel Mon, 24 Aug 2026 20:25:27 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/saying-no-as-a-couple-without-resentment/ https://katieandbenny.com/saying-no-as-a-couple-without-resentment/ Saying no is hard enough on your own. Doing it as a couple — without one of you feeling guilty and the other feeling overruled — is a skill nobody actually teaches you. Here's how Katie and Benny finally figured it out. Katie & Benny Life & Work Mon, 24 Aug 2026 12:20:32 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/when-one-partner-craves-adventure-and-the-other-craves-routine/ https://katieandbenny.com/when-one-partner-craves-adventure-and-the-other-craves-routine/ It doesn't show up as a big blowout fight. It creeps in slowly — a quiet eye-roll when another trip gets suggested, a forced smile at the trailhead, a growing sense that you're dragging someone along who'd rather be anywhere else. Here's what we've learned about navigating mismatched adventure appetites before they quietly eat a relationship alive. Katie & Benny Life & Work Sun, 23 Aug 2026 08:20:26 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/when-your-dreams-dont-match-navigating-big-decisions-as-a-couple/ https://katieandbenny.com/when-your-dreams-dont-match-navigating-big-decisions-as-a-couple/ What happens when one of you wants to move across the country and the other wants to plant roots right where you are? Katie and Benny have been there — more than once — and they've built a real framework for working through it without letting resentment take hold. Katie & Benny Life & Work Sat, 22 Aug 2026 20:20:26 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/we-built-something-nobody-asked-for-and-it-taught-us-more-about-each-other/ https://katieandbenny.com/we-built-something-nobody-asked-for-and-it-taught-us-more-about-each-other/ When we decided to build a creative project together from scratch — no audience, no guarantee, no roadmap — we thought we were just making something fun. What we didn't expect was how much it would reveal about who we each actually are when the stakes feel real. Katie & Benny Life & Work Sat, 22 Aug 2026 08:15:45 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/why-trip-planning-used-to-wreck-us-and-the-system-that-finally-fixed-it/ https://katieandbenny.com/why-trip-planning-used-to-wreck-us-and-the-system-that-finally-fixed-it/ For years, the moment we opened a browser to plan a trip together, something went sideways. One of us wanted a color-coded itinerary; the other wanted to just 'see what happens.' Here's how we stopped turning vacation planning into a relationship stress test. Katie & Benny Travel Sat, 22 Aug 2026 08:15:45 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/we-hit-delete-on-years-of-our-life-online/ https://katieandbenny.com/we-hit-delete-on-years-of-our-life-online/ Last spring, we spent three weekends going through every post we'd ever published and made some hard calls about what should stay. It wasn't just a cleanup — it turned into one of the most honest conversations we've ever had about who we are now versus who we were then. Katie & Benny Life & Work Sat, 22 Aug 2026 04:20:35 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/when-your-travel-styles-dont-match/ https://katieandbenny.com/when-your-travel-styles-dont-match/ Benny wants to hike until his legs give out. Katie wants a great coffee shop and a slow morning. We've been navigating this gap for years — and we've gotten a lot better at it, mostly by stopping pretending it isn't there. Katie & Benny Travel Sat, 22 Aug 2026 04:20:35 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/how-we-set-boundaries-with-our-online-audience/ https://katieandbenny.com/how-we-set-boundaries-with-our-online-audience/ There was a moment when Benny looked at me across the dinner table and said, 'Are we doing this because we want to, or because they want us to?' That question cracked something open. We'd been so busy performing our relationship that we'd almost forgotten to just live it. Katie & Benny Life & Work Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:30:37 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/budget-travel-tips-how-we-afford-adventures/ https://katieandbenny.com/budget-travel-tips-how-we-afford-adventures/ People see our travel photos and assume we're either loaded or reckless with money. We're neither. We've just spent a few years getting very deliberate — and occasionally very creative — about how we make adventure happen on a budget that would surprise most people. Katie & Benny Travel Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:30:37 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/what-sharing-our-life-online-actually-cost-us/ https://katieandbenny.com/what-sharing-our-life-online-actually-cost-us/ Running a lifestyle blog as a couple sounds fun until the comments section starts shaping your relationship, your audience expects a version of you that doesn't exist, and you realize you've accidentally turned your most personal memories into content. Here's the unfiltered version. Katie & Benny Life & Work Fri, 21 Aug 2026 20:15:35 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/passion-projects-to-paychecks-building-a-creative-business/ https://katieandbenny.com/passion-projects-to-paychecks-building-a-creative-business/ Turning your creative work into actual income sounds dreamy until you realize nobody teaches you how to price yourself, find clients, or handle the gut-punch of self-doubt. We've been through all of it, and here's the honest version of how we made it work. Katie & Benny Life & Work Fri, 21 Aug 2026 20:15:35 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/how-we-plan-every-weekend-trip-without-losing-our-minds-or-our-savings/ https://katieandbenny.com/how-we-plan-every-weekend-trip-without-losing-our-minds-or-our-savings/ After dozens of weekend getaways — some dreamy, some total disasters — Katie and Benny have cracked the code on planning couples' trips that actually work. Whether you've got $200 or $2,000 to spend, here's the exact framework we use every single time we hit the road together. Katie & Benny Travel Fri, 21 Aug 2026 16:15:35 GMT https://katieandbenny.com/we-left-our-office-jobs-to-make-things-together-heres-what-nobody-warned-us-about/ https://katieandbenny.com/we-left-our-office-jobs-to-make-things-together-heres-what-nobody-warned-us-about/ Quitting stable jobs to build a creative life together sounded exciting — and it was, until the reality of blending a relationship with a business partnership hit us. Katie and Benny open up about the financial stress, the creative friction, and the surprising ways it's made them stronger as both a couple and a team. Katie & Benny Life & Work Fri, 21 Aug 2026 16:15:35 GMT