How? 4, 5, 6 kids? Enlighten me please

[despet93]

@katrina2017

especially with investing in long-term things, like cloth diapering which has a big start-up cost but when you use it for so many kids, it is way more cost-effective in the long ru

Oh yeah, definitely. I'm the older sister and she used all my clothes, toys and everything my mom could pass to her she would. lol

There are a lot of ways to have a monthly income with a ton of kids. I think mostly because i come from a country that you "don't need to pay" for schools and have universal health care, so the cost decreases a lot. This is a new concept for me how things work here (US), it just gets me by surprise sometimes because my reference is different, but i think once you get your first you have more a realistic scenario and work things through.

 

[karuna42]

@despet93 Cost of Living is a HUGE factor. I’m So Cal, my husband makes pretty good money but we can’t yet afford to buy our own home, and homes here basically start at $700k for a 2bed/1bath. In our specific neighborhood it’s difficult to find any home - even the old, fixer upper, run down houses - for less than a MILLION dollars. You can easily get a 4 bedroom house for under $100k in many places in the US. A family friend owns a house in Ohio - six beds, five baths, and a “small” 2 bed guest house in a distant suburb - that she bought for $160k a few years ago. Her husband, like mine, works in software. Mine makes a little more (90k vs 78k) but you can see how housing costs are massively different. She has four kids and they have a lot more financial freedom than we do with no kids.

There’s a big chance that most things are hand me downs, and SAHMs with that many kids usually learn how to be fairly frugal. Coupons, easy big batch dinners, sale items.

 

[thisisreality]

@despet93 I have a coworker with 4 kids. Together he and his wife earn about $225,000 per year.

She's a teacher making about $100K a year, and he makes about $95K plus he runs a side business bringing in another $30K a year.

They also have highly involved grandparents on both sides who help with baby-sitting and other things (though no daycare), like school pickup and drop off.

 

[samantha_41]

@despet93 Grew up in a family of 4 kids. It was a combination of low COL, exclusively wearing hand-me-down, and eating at home and very frugally that allowed my parents to do it. We were never rich but we afforded to go on vacation every year or two (driving and cooking meals).

We did all the sports and went to private school. But my parents worked their butts off. Like for us to do gymnastics my mom cleaned the gymnastics center. My dad tutored every weekend and after school to pay for our school. He coached swim in the summer so we could be on the team for free.

They were and still are badasses. They didn't pay for college or fancy clothes or European vacations but we all had a great childhood. Like someone said above it's all about priorities!

 

[chrome559]

@despet93 Credit cards

 

[chaoticjoy3]

@chrome559 Big way people manage that aspirational suburban lifestyle, yep.

 

[boriquasgirl]

@chrome559 This. Haha.

There’s an individual on my Facebook who frequently complains on Facebook that she doesn’t have money and can’t afford things yet they continue to have kids. I don’t get it.

 

[rebecca25]

@despet93 We structured our lives to be able to afford this. We paid off all our debt before TTC. We gave up eating out, we drove cars from 1996, we lived in a tiny studio apartment. We didn’t buy new clothes and haircuts were great clips. We did this for 2 years and got debt free.

We now have one baby and I decided to SAHM with her. We can easily afford our lifestyle on my husband’s income. We have no debt except our mortgage and our mortgage is < 20% of his income. We bought both our cars in cash we saved up for (now a 2004 and 2011).

Baby stuff barely gets used so we buy a lot at garage sales and Facebook marketplace. Being at home I have the time to scour sales and pick up items which saves us money in turn.

75% of my kids clothes are hand me downs or garage sales. I wash them and they are just fine. I don’t buy stained or torn stuff. All of it is nice. Babies grow so fast they may wear an outfit once or not as all.

 

[cortney128]

@despet93 I watched this awesome documentary on a family with 9 kids who run a sheep farm in the north of England. They were AWESOME. The mum was in her forties and the dad is his sixties. She said (paraphrased):

"Having your first is life changing. That's the hardest. Then you have another one and everything doubles. A third is when it gets really hard work. Then when you've had your fourth or maybe fifth, it doesn't really make a difference."

Her point was that once you've bought everything for the first ones, you just reuse what you've already got. Plus she said it gets to a point where the older ones help raise the little ones, so your workload actually decreases. It's funny.

 

[katrina2017]

@cortney128 9 kids on a sheep farm in northern England?! Lady's living the dream!!!

 

[shasikatesl]

@despet93 Also, that same couple that got out of debt, bought a house, then had 3 kids could also have 6. I’m surprised by the number of comments assuming that all big families are drowning in debt. The big families I know are either relatively wealthy and/or super frugal.

So bizarre that I’m getting downvoted for this but okay

 

[despet93]

@shasikatesl

I’m surprised by the number of comments assuming that all big families are drowning in debt

I just assumed because i come from a different country and different economy system, so i just guessed by the experience that i having now. I mean, I just learned (last year) how credit score worked lol