[momof4n1more]

Just curious ladies how you all make ends meet. We have 4 children and will be TTC #5 hopefully this summer. My DH is a 911 dispatcher and I am a dog groomer. We dont make a ton of money. I know having/raising a large family is not ALL about money but there are some things that are neccessity kwim? Anyway, we live in a 3 bedroon ranch style house right now. My 2 older girls share a room and the 2 younger ones share a room. We are planning on finishing the basement and putting in an additional 1-2 bedrooms and eventually building up or moving. Do your children share rooms? How do you cut costs? AM I being selfish by wanting more children? We cant/wont be able to shop at name brand stores most of the time, we dont get to eat out a lot, etc. I feel that having a large family is a gift and not of the material things really matter much.

[Repti.Mom]

We should make this a sticky lol

You just live within your means. The most expensive thing we have besides housing cost is the van, which we need because it's what they fit (barely) in. We have a 4 bedroom house, right now three girls share, two boys share and the youngest has his own room. We used to only use 3 bedrooms for bedrooms one was a playroom, but DH transformed the basement into a playroom.
The ONLY time we go out is when we get extra money, like taxes. I don't work, DH is a Honda tech and works part time at a fish hatchery in the spring-fall. Of course we never know year to year if he is going to go back to the fish hatchery or not, the new owners are sorta wishy washy and strange.
I shop at walmart and other cheap stores, but seriously what CAN'T you get at walmart? The kids get hand me downs from some neighbors and friends, and I don't buy them name brand stuff brand new, but the clothes are never dirty holey or outgrown, I guess that's all that matters.

[sarahlorrain]

I'm going to be open with you here and tell you that in 2011, our income was a bit under $45K and we are a family of 6. That said, we have a 3 bedroom house and I drive a 2007 Tahoe (seats 7 so there is room for one more!) My daughter has her own room and my two older boys share a room. The little guy shares a room with us. Whenever we have the new baby, David will probably share a bed with one of his brothers until we can move into a bigger house. If that doesn't happen within the next few years, we will move the three boys into the master bedroom so they can all have their own beds and take their smaller room for ourselves. We also have a covered patio that we could enclose to make extra room if we had to.

When my Dad was young, he said they were packed in like sardines in their bunkbeds (they had a small house and he had 5 brothers.) So, I know my kids will survive.

For food, we are not on foodstamps or WIC (although I plan on getting back on WIC soon.) I haven't been on it because they didn't have a local office and it was a pain to drive out of town on Tuesdays to go. I use a lot of coupons, match them with sale ads, etc.

My kids get a lot hand me downs. I have a nephew who is two years older than my oldest son and we get a lot of hand me downs from him. With three boys, that really helps. I shop garage sales, thrift shops, etc. I'll usually buy them new clothes for Christmas presents. My daughter saves up money to buy herself new clothes that I'm not willing to splurge on. I think it's a good lesson for her. You want a brand new cute swimsuit? Sure, here's some extra chores to do; do a good job and I'll pay you. I also pay my kids to exercise, but that's a whole other thread. So they know they have to work to get things they want.

We RARELY go out to eat. When I do my big shopping trip since I have the kids with me, I have to feed them lunch. (We have to drive 45 miles to go grocery shopping.) We usually go to Wendy's and I can feed the 5 of us for about $13. I could pack PB&J sandwiches or something, but I'm lazy, so I don't.

We don't spend much on entertainment. We rent movies from RedBox a lot on the weekends. We go to the park, ride bikes, go for walks, go to the track to exercise, play soccer/football together. We ran a 5K race together last weekend. We just registered the kids; that was $30. We do that a few times a year. We spend a lot of time outside. The garden is a family effort so that keeps us entertained during the warm months.

My husband and I both run for our hobby, so our expenses for that are shoes, workout clothes and the fees for when we enter a race to be competitive. So maybe a max of $300/year each, at the most.

[Repti.Mom]

Our income for last year was just under $32,000 (I'll share too, not shy about it). We DO qualify form food stamps, in order not to in some for we'd have to make 75,264, (jumps to over 82,000 once the baby comes) a year. I'm pretty sure if we even made $50,000 a year I would no longer go to apply for FS.

[jhmomofmany]

got ya'll beat.. our combined gross income for 2011 was $29k for our family of 9. Yep... our house is small, our vehicles are crap, we couldn't get together a thousand bucks if we hawked everything we own. But our kids are well loved, and we take good care of them all. We're on FS and if I'm going to go back to school we're gonna need all kinds of help affording that. But anybody wants to say we're selfish or "worthless breeders"... I'd line my kids up and ask them who we should get rid of just so we could afford designer clothes and vacations for the 1.2 kids we're "allowed". My treasure is not of this world anyway.

[Momtothe6thpower]

We just try to live on less than what we make. Smaller house=smaller mortgage, less to clean and more simplicity. We have older cars but zero payments. I think not eating out is just as good for your health and diet as it is your pocket book. (As long as your not cooking all processed foods anyway.) Just get creative when it comes to finding ways to save money for your family.

[momof4n1more]

Thanks ladies. I love hearing from you. I know were there is a will there is a way. We have wonderful health insurance and I wont use state assistance. BUT I am prepared to cut all possible costs to make this work. I cut our sons and my DH's hair at home, we shop at Aldi's for most of our groceries and use coupons when we can. Im more concerned about sleeping arrangements but I guess it will all work out in the end. We live in CT so the cost of living is ridiculous. Keep posting, I love reading your posts about this

[UrbanMomma]

Our house is paid for, our van is paid for. We have no credit cards. We shop mostly at thrift stores or clearance sales at other stores. I use coupons for groceries, and I shop early or late in the day to get the clearance items.
Dh works full time and cuts hair out of our house. I work part time. We don't try to keep up with the latest trends for everyone or have to have every new gadget.
We don't eat out. We rent movies occasionally from the Red Box. We don't go on vacations.

We are just content with the things we have.

Our house is a three bedroom bungalow. Our basement isn't finished but the two oldest live down there anyway. Four boys are in one room, two girls in another and dh and I room with the youngest girl and soon the baby too.

[GiftsfromGod]

Kids don't cost that much. Lifestyles choices are what get expensive.

This past year we lived off of about 18,000 and then put the rest of DH's salary toward paying off debt (from college years when we were young and foolish). We don't live like a lot of our 1-2 kid friends who are our age but we feel so blessed to have these three children (#4 on the way) and I would take having more kids over having larger house and newer car any day.

Two favorite money saving sites are Hillbilly Housewife | Low Cost Home Cooking from Scratch for recipes and meal ideas and Money Saving Mom® :: Helping You Be a Better Home Economist for lots of other great practical money saving tips

[mom2many2010]

Let's see, last year the hubby made more then any other year just over 52K. That's for a family of ten. It sounds good but we have 2 in college, on who's books alone cost over $400...for one semester. And a senior, so anything that was over his "norm" really went right out the door.

We are lucky enough to live in the country so I have a garden and friends who give me from their gardens. I can a good bit so that is a money saver. We have a 4 bedroom house with 2 rooms in the basement...and *gasp* one bathroom (potty training can be fun around here) The 2 older girls have their own room, my older boys (one in college so only the oldest boy has the room) have the other and the 4 younger ones all share a room. That's how they like it, I tried moving the oldest boy of my younger set into the basement bedroom but he is having none of it.

We rarely eat out, living in the country helps with that, we do have netflix and cable for our entertainment in the winter. Plus it's cheaper then buying movies since we are big movie people. They have 99% of their want and all of their needs met, I am fairly good at budgeting so if they want an ipod for say their birthday they know to let me know a little early so I can budget it in. Hand me downs and thrift stores, my older crew don't really go for name brands and are as bad about pricing stuff as me.

We don't do big vacations we live where the wilderness is all around us...we live about 5 minutes form the snake river. Camping can be expensive but we have learned to eat cheap and over the years have amassed a good supply of camping gear.

I'm sure there is more but that is all that comes to mind..

[sarahlorrain]

I just can't wait until we get out of debt. That was our biggest mistake, getting all the store cards etc. After we get our income tax refund, we will finally be down to just the mortgage, the Tahoe, and the Home Depot card. Once we pay off the card, we'll start trying to pay down the car as quickly as possible. I really want to be without a car payment. I miss those days.

[Kierasmom]

My husband makes very good money.

[#5in2005]

I think you just make choices and make it work, because what else are you going to do?

And maybe kids don't cost that much, but their piano lessons do. It totally adds up doing stuff times 2 or 3 or 4 or 5, particularly as they get older.

[CBTECH]

You're not selfish by wanting more children...as long as you can afford it and no one is "left out" (for lack of better wording). Thankfully my DH makes a good wage which allows me to be a SAHM without having to worry, but once Melanie's in school I'll probably find a part-time job.

When we bought our house it was a 3 bedroom, but with help from friends & family, we've managed to reno it to a 5 bedroom. The kids all share rooms, 3 to a room with one room having the 2 oldest girls. None of them share a room with DH & I.

A few other ways we have found to help cut costs:

- Buying direct from the farmers & planting our own garden.
- 1 pizza night per month & coupons when possible. LOVE 2for1 sales hahaha
- Hand me down/hand me around clothing with my siblings. No brand names unless you work for it.
- DH is a mechanic so free vehicle repairs, but we bike as much as possible.
- We bought a swimming pool because we all love to swim. It was a bit of an upfront expense but has paid for itself in no time.

[#5in2005]

I didn't mean to sound so cranky ...there are definetly ways to cut costs in the choices you make (buy bulk, used, don't eat out, etc etc) and I would not say I can't afford kids, but they do cost A LOT, and sometimes it all comes at once.

But to answer your question if you're selfish wanting more kids then the answer is absolutely not. I feel the best thing I've ever done for my kids is to have 5 of them I LOVE it, and no trip, house, thing in the world would be worth trading having a big family.

[StayAtHomeDad]

I feel kinda bad now that I've read this, because I work about 9 hours a week (while the 3 youngest are at kindy) and earn $55k a year and the wife earns about $90k. In saying that, Ari's high school fees are $15k a year, plus we have 7 horses/ponies to feed, cover ect. We live on Em's family farm, so we don't need to pay for anything like that. We have Ari and Addie in their own rooms, with Ethan and Amy sharing plus a geust room and our master bedroom.

[Kierasmom]

Originally Posted by StayAtHomeDad

I feel kinda bad now that I've read this, because I work about 9 hours a week (while the 3 youngest are at kindy) and earn $55k a year and the wife earns about $90k. In saying that, Ari's high school fees are $15k a year, plus we have 7 horses/ponies to feed, cover ect. We live on Em's family farm, so we don't need to pay for anything like that. We have Ari and Addie in their own rooms, with Ethan and Amy sharing plus a geust room and our master bedroom.

Why do you feel bad?

[#5in2005]

Yeah, don't feel bad.

Maybe I'll feed bad too after being negative because I live in a 6 bedroom house. We have 12 horses. My kids go to a private school (that's why we don't go on big trips, we choose to spend it there).

[StayAtHomeDad]

I feel a bit bad because sometimes I forget how tough it is for people who arent as well ff as myself and my family. I do know what it's like having to worry if you can put food on the table as when Ari was born we were 17. Even though we lived with Em's mum before we went to uni, once we left home we had to rely on Student Allowance and Working for Families which totaled to about $300 a week. We cut back everything, but because we were both studying full-time, we had to pay for daycare ect.

[#5in2005]

It's always good to count your blessings