To wonder how on earth some people afford loads of children?

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When they have a seemingly average earning job?

I know 3 people with very large families: two have six children and one family has eight and is TTC baby number 9!

All of these families seem to have a good standard of living, eg they go on foreign holidays each year, the kids are all dressed in good brands such as Boden, the mums have expensive clothes and don't skimp on hair appointments or beauty treatments, the dads have expensive hobbies, they have nice houses, the kids do plenty of activities, etc.

Of these three couples, one dad works as a car salesman and the mum is a SAHM. Another dad works in a factory and the mum very very part time as a cleaner. And the third family the dad works in a gym and the mum is a SAHM.

I'm just wondering how the hell people manage to afford so many children! We stopped at two because there is no way we could have afforded more and still have a reasonable lifestyle, yet people seem to have lots of kids, average paying jobs and fantastic lifestyles!

Am I missing a trick here?

A car salesman can earn a very good wage if they’re good!

It’s so hard to know personal circumstances - maybe there is family money, maybe they are the best budget shoppers and couponers ever, maybe they’re in loads of debt.

The kids are probably in hand me down clothes so it isn’t new Boden every year, and if one parent is a SAHP there are no childcare costs.

I think this about young first-time buyer couples in average jobs who manage to come up with deposits for £350,000+ houses, I don't show it but I'm envious when it gets discussed amongst colleagues and friends. DH reckons it's usually family money or drug money. With lifestyles there could be a lot of debt involved too.

Well if he's a very good car salesman, he could be earning up to £80K and beyond (I worked in dealership payroll in a previous life).

Perhaps the one who works in a gym is on commission? Or has a share in it? And perhaps the one who works in a factory is a senior manager? Who knows?

Or perhaps they're just racking up hideous debt which will bite them on the arse one day.

We can only guess (but I'd like to know too!).

Tax credits.

And this: I think this about young first-time buyer couples in average jobs who manage to come up with deposits for £350,000+ houses, I don't show it but I'm envious when it gets discussed amongst colleagues and friends. DH reckons it's usually family money or drug money. With lifestyles there could be a lot of debt involved too.

There's a gorgeous house opposite our office which was advertised to rent for £2k per month. An unlikely and very young couple have moved in. They have a knackered old car (as do I!) and she seems to be at home a lot. Perhaps she works from home. Colleagues and I are very intrigued!

You'll know when they come to retire and have a pension worth peanuts as it was the last thing they invested in.

There's a family down our road w 7 kids who sound a bit like this. They have a very valuable ice cream van franchise and occasionally diversify into a bit of dodgy property development.

1. Family money, like inheritance or just a lot of help from parents (house deposit, etc)

1. They can't actually afford it and are in massive debt, just look the part

1. They earn a lot more than you think/are excellent bargain hunters/budgeting skills

1. Tax credits - the two child rule only came in last year so people claiming for more before that are still allowed to keep claiming for however many kids they have (not any born after April last year though)

1. Unlikely but potentially criminal income, drugs, fraud or whatever, these things do happen.

1. A combination of some or all of the above

I don't know of any of the families that I know having family help/being from a rich background. The car salesman father works for a small business rather than a dealership, I don't know if they'd have the turnover and sales for him to earn huge earnings.

I know someone like this who has seven children and is a 'brand ambassador' on social media. Her dc (and her) are always in designer clothes, she has a multitude of designer handbags, both her and her DH drive new Range Rovers and they go on several 'holibobs' per year. People must think that she is loaded. She's all about #livingmybestlife and #makingmemories but I know that she is up to her neck in debt, her 'amazing home' is rented (topped up by HB) and the cars are on HP. She gives the impression that she is a high flier City type but she left school with just a few GCSE's and doesn't work. Her husband does shift work in a factory and they are surviving on tax credits.

I only know 2 families with 5+ children.
For one family, their dad is a banker in London.
The other family are unemployed.
Super rich or super poor are the only ones who can afford it - anecdotally.

I think don't worry about it as long as the kids are happy and looked after it's no ones business

How do you think they afford it ? Child benefit for eight children would be £125 ish pounds a week alone not to mention tax credits which thankfully now are capped at two.

Some people could just be better at saving them others! It’s down to the individual how they save and spend their money and as a previous poster said as long as the kids are happy....we never know someone’s personal situations and I don’t think it’s fair to speculate. If they can afford (however they can) good on them!

some things don't cost more, just because you have more children
ie lighting a home, watching a TV, heating the house
Lot of larger families have a lot of children in one room (I know a family with 4 children in a double bedroom
Once you've taken the hit of a stay at home parent, they could be minding one or ten children, the cost is the same
find more cost effective ways of cooking
Hand me downs

so apart from holidays I can see some economies of scale.

Lots of debt.

I used to think this about an internet friend I knew (online only) who had four kids, she didn't work, husband was a mechanic or something. Kids always dressed in new next (although pp is probably right and younger ones probably had hand me downs) but on the surface they had a lot more than us with both working and only two kids. A couple of years later she admitted they were in loads of debt and looking to sell up to release the equity in their house to pay off the debt and hand to rent for a few years.

You just never know the ins and outs of people's circumstances.

Surely the whole point of buying Boden stuff is that it lasts long enough to hand down?

I don't know about how families do it but I do know that posters aren't satisfied with the answer unless it ends with tax credits, debt or other manner of deffered financial ruin.

we have 4 kids and struggled financially when they were younger. My daughter always wore Boden - usually bought off ebay for a couple of pounds and usually good enough / hardwearing enough to be re-sold on afterwards !

You can get a lot of tax credits child benefit for a big family.

If they are 40s they could have each bought cheap flats in their early 20s and have lots of equity now.

Lots of hand me downs, economies of scale, cheap bulked out food.

We have four and were only able to afford them by working opposite each other for many years to avoid childcare costs. So I worked nights and weekends and dh worked 9-5. This enabled us to pay for things for them , we have not had any tax credits for many years since they were very small as keeping two careers going meant we were always over the threshold.

No doubt plenty of people will be along to tell you it’s none of your business and while that’s of course true I wonder this often about people I know too. Bank of mum and Dad for the ones I know I recon

Reckon

Just run a scenario through the entitled to calculator, living in my own house but renting it, with dad 37, mum 35 and 6 kids aged 1 - 10, no childcare costs, and dad working FT earning £24,900, mum not working.

Full benefit entitlement for the year £33,983.17 . (That is more than either of us earn working FT, plus we also have all the usual work expenses x2). There's your answer.

All council tax paid, plus most of rent. CHB of £4,638.40 for the year and CTC of £14,807.36. That is why they brought in the benefit cap.

Babyroobs we did the same. DH worked nights, I worked afternoons and Saturdays so we didn't use childcare. Tax credits didn't exist, they all wore clothes from QS/Peacocks, and we had a week's holiday off-season in a caravan once a year.