How do you afford it?

[Mommabear20]

DH and I have 2 kids and now DH is insisting we're done having kids as he doesn't want to be stretched financially. I understand where he's coming from and agree that we shouldn't have more kids than we can comfortably afford, but I'd love a large family. I would ideally like 5 kids, so my question is, if you have 5+ kids, what is your (rough) monthly income? And do you feel like your financially stretched, comfortable or more than comfortable? Thanks 😊

I've seen many of my friends have their thirds during covid. I worry how some of them will cope when the realities of multiple kids at school / parties / play dates / clubs kick in. Both financially and practically as none have particularly involved fathers and all seem overwhelmed by the simplest of tasks.

We have 6. Low income so it’s tricky but we get FSM and we’re very lucky to have a large council property

We reuse / hand down a lot. Budget a lot, still in some debt though. It’s not too bad. The hardest thing is the amount of admin I have to do I actually really struggle organising but make sure I try to keep things in order

If you qualify for FSM you must be on benefits, even as a student and working a little I didn't qualify

We have 4 children. Comfortable for money. I'm a SAHM.

We are very outdoorsy and our children are too so most weekends and school holidays are spent at nature reserves, woods etc we don't really go for expensive days out like theme parks etc

We have national trust membership which is fantastic value and also wwt membership

We holiday in the UK

We buy most of our clothes Preloved which is better for the environment too, we use cloth nappies, have literally used the same ones for all the children etc

We just have one car which my husband uses for work, I walk most places
Hope that helps

I have 4 andmy income is alot less then most of others 35 k a year however I have a disabled child and 2 sen children so don't work my dh does
We manage yes but by all means no luxury life have to budget and stick to it

I agree with PPs who say it’s not about affordability now but affordability in the teenage years. It costs SO much more when they are older. Even more so as young adults - would any of them like to go to university, drive, school trips? You need to pay for transport post 16, which if you live rurally like e is going to be very difficult. If they have a passion for dance/sport etc then clubs are costly. You can’t hand down clothes as they don’t grow out of them.