In case you've been living under a rock and haven't heard, our country is having some financial difficulties. The economy is bad for some right now and predicted to get worse in the coming months. Some people are panicking and some are looking back in history and learning from our forefathers on how to survive an economic crises. Those who are proactive should come out of this just fine.
My husband and I have 8 children. When I met my husband, he made about $50,000 a year and I made about $20,000 a year. We started out our his and mine relationship with 5 children. While $70,000 a year may sound like a lot to some....you aren't raising 5 children and paying child support to an ex! After Uncle Sam took his share and the ex took hers...we were living on a lot less than $70,000 a year and doing fine.
We have added 3 more kids to the family since then and my husband's salary went up while mine went down but we have never forgotten nor forsaken living frugally. We don't drive BMWs or take Paris vacations but we are happy and pretty healthy financially speaking.
Living frugally does not mean the end of life as you know it. It just means cutting back and living according to a budget. You might even surprise yourself by discovering that putting on some jeans and picking blackberries with your kids can be a lot funner than sitting in a 4 star restaurant and if not, well, at least you weren't being a couch potatoe and I bet your kids will enjoy it.
The following is a list of how we raise 8 kids on our budget....
1. Our kids don't get their own room. That isn't to say they don't think they should have their own room, just that we the parents decided they didn't need their own rooms. We have a 5 bedroom home, but our rule sticks. We have four sets of bunk beds (my husband made them) in two bedrooms of a moderate size. That's 4 kids per room. Boys in one and girls in the other. So if you find yourself needing to downsize on your home, never fear, sharing a room never killed anyone! We turned our 4th bedroom into an office and the 5th into a large walk in pantry/laundry room. If we ever need to downsize to a smaller home, we could and would to make ends meet.
2. We shop in bulk and we buy store brand instead of name brand. Now don't stand there and tell me that milk that says Borden on it tastes any different than Walmart or Kroger brand milk! You will just make me laugh. The same goes for most of the products in the stores. It all comes from pretty much the same places.
3. My kids wear hand me downs and I shop thrift stores. That isn't to say they don't get new things because they do but the bulk of the younger kids wardrobe comes from finding good bargains. My kids wear their clothes about 6 months before they've grown again and need to go up a size. Why spend $50 plus for a pair of jeans they won't fit into 6 months from now when I can find the same thing at Goodwill for $5?!?! Even Old NAvy can't beat $5 for a pair of jeans.
4. We only have two bathrooms. All 8 kids don't live with us. Only 7 do, but all 9 of us share 2 bathrooms. We started out with 3 but I felt it was a waste of space and put that space to better use and ripped out the bathroom. I wouldn't say this saves us money per se, but if 9 of us can share two bathrooms and do it well, you can to if you have to downsize. We just schedule our showers to fit our schedules and it works and if we had to downsize and share one bathroom, you can bet your rear end we would!
5. We raise chickens for eggs. Eggs aren't that expensive. I know this. BUT, if you don't have a job, at least you have eggs if you have your own chickens. It's typically an egg per day per chicken. I typically have 24 eggs per day. I lost a lot of chickens so that was down to 2 but with better planning and a new coop the new chickens should be fine now. My family could survive with just my chickens and my knowlege of edible things in the wild if I had to resort to that. You say you can't have chickens in your neighborhood? Guess how many eggs I throw away per week on average? I try to give them away and can't give them all away. Find someone like me that has extra they aren't using and make use of that resource.
Well that is the end of part 1. Stay tuned for part 2. Look at it this way...I have 9 mouths to feed....how many do you have? If I can do it, you can too.
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