Comments on: What a Budget For a Family of 8 Looks Like

By: BizJones

BizJones — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 23:28:43 +0000

We are a family of 8 with 6 kiddos under the age of 9. I find this budget somewhat crazy unrealistic for our area as well as my husband’s line of work. He is a contractor who builds custom homes. We make a good amount of money but standard of living is high here. The phone bill thing blows my mind. You don’t have cable, but you do have internet, correct? Internet here is no less than $100/month. We currently spend $300-400/wk on food and toiletries and we never eat out. I have never understood the couponing deal, because when I go to the store, they don’t let us stack or double or anything special…and they never have anything on sale that also has a coupon! Our monthly insurance premium would be at least $2600/month…because we are self-employed…so we only have major medical and dental. Our dental is $130/month and it doesn’t even cover much, but dentists won’t see your children down here at all unless you have insurance. The same story rings true for doctors, but there is a family health clinic that’s $60-110 per visit base. I just don’t see being able to manipulate what you do to fit our family, even though we both have 6 kids. Crazy how different life is in different parts of the US. We do have some debts that you don’t have, so that could be part of it as well. I have college loans we pay on even though I don’t work. We pay $2000/month for our 1900sqft home. Your post has given me great insight in some areas, while baffling me in others.

By: Carla

Carla — Wed, 25 Dec 2019 05:34:12 +0000

Really impressive budget for such a large family! What about clothes, shoes, toiletries and household goods? Where do they fall in your budget?

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 19 Jun 2019 14:08:22 +0000

In reply to Serena. Wow - impressive!!

By: Serena

Serena — Wed, 19 Jun 2019 12:51:59 +0000

We also have 6 children, ages 2 months-8 years. This was a refreshing read even though our income is closer to $3k net a month. We live off-grid on land we own outright so that lowers our housing considerably. We spend roughly $400 a month on groceries now that the boys are getting older. We plan to start raising our own meat again to help maintain that cost as they grow.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 10:46:40 +0000

In reply to Momof6. Wowwww - go Super Mom!

By: Momof6

Momof6 — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 10:32:27 +0000

Love your story im a mommy of 6. 3 boys 3 girls 10, 5, 3, 3, 2 and 1. Trying to get out of debt and raise a family on one income isn’t easy but i love how you lay everything out

By: Amber Borne

Amber Borne — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 22:36:46 +0000

Hello,

We also have six kids, from 13 to 1. What percent of your budget goes to things like gas? Do you budget for car maintenance like oil changes and tires? We recently had all the vehicles need something from check engine to flat tire to busted water pump, so whenever I think we are doing great budget wise, our savings take a hit. (I am grateful for savings).

Our grocery bill seems very high, as ours go through 5 to 6 gallons of milk a week and locally, those are over 4.25/gallon.

By: Michelle Benfer

Michelle Benfer — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 01:51:08 +0000

Hi Dan,
We also have 6 kids, and have never really used a budget because we have never made enough to have a budget until now. (basically, we just never spent any money unless absolutely necessary.) Now that my husband makes more, we need to figure out proper percentages for savings, entertainment, etc, so this was helpful! I also totally agree with you about college! Anyway, we just got the Capitol One Venture credit card to save for travel, but I’m trying to figure out if this is the best idea, since they charge $95/year after the first year. Before now, we’ve always used our Discover card to earn cashback bonus and have always cashed them in for gift cards, earning at least $400 in gift cards per year. Every 3 months, they have a rotation of businesses where you earn 5% towards cashback, instead of just 2%. Since Capitol One only offers 2%, do you think it would make more sense to just keep using discover, and cash in the money we’ve saved and set it aside for travel rather than for gift cards? Or is there an advantage to actually getting the mileage points?

By: J. Money

J. Money — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 14:30:44 +0000

In reply to superbien. Also passion! The more your heart's in it the higher you'll always go.

By: superbien

superbien — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 11:42:35 +0000

In reply to J. Money.

I think about this a lot, and have come to the realization that in most carers, success has to do with education (formal or informal – learning to think and analyze, how to learn, and how to find best practices in a field), competence at desired skills, and ability to get along well with others on some level. ‘White collar’, ‘blue collar’, whatever, you need those 3 things.