What is normal spending for large family?

[5KidzRUs]

I know we talk a lot about food budget here - I am wondering what is a normal medium monthly budget for a large family (all kids teens) of 6-8 with dogs.

 

The budget would include:

 

Food - for people and pets

Gas - for two cars

Clothes - whatever comes up for all

Household - ANYTHING that comes up for house

Misc. - all misc. Incidentals - hygiene and cleaning supplies etc

 

I think that is it - so 'household budget' budget would not include insurance - no bills etc

 

Thanks!

[TKDmom]

I really think it depends more on your income and where you live. If you have a large family and a small income you will find ways to cut corners. If you have a larger income, you'll probably find ways to spend that money...;)

 

 

(Sorry I'm not being at all helpful)

[5KidzRUs]

I really think it depends more on your income and where you live. If you have a large family and a small income you will find ways to cut corners. If you have a larger income, you'll probably find ways to spend that money...;)

 

 

(Sorry I'm not being at all helpful)

 

 

Medium budget - living in an area where food is a bit on the high side.

My spending is about $400-$500/week (healthy-ish food) for the household budget. I have big eaters and two large dogs. Also, gas for cars is not cheap and costs about $60/week for both cars. PS lunches. 5 pay-as-you-go cell phones too, run about $50/month. We need the phone as teens don't drive and I am running them back and forth and they are constantly on field trips.

Problem is, I think it is center line and dh thinks it is lavish.

Edited November 25, 2011 by 5KidzRUs

[teachermom2834]

I'm not much help because I'm just trying to figure this out for our family.

 

It seems like we are going through $500 per week for the things you listed and all the other pop up expenses (a field trip/co-pay for a dr. appt/ birthday gifts for parties, etc.)

 

We don't eat out but spend alot on gas, at least double what you are. Lots of our activities are an hour round trip.

 

We try to eat healthy. For us that doesn't mean organic or specialty foods but it doesn mean whole wheat flour/produce/ no cheap processed carby foods.

 

WE got into a little financial bind and we are forced to look at our spending more carefully. I just cannot accept that we are spending that much money.

 

So I'm very interested in the answer to this question. It just seems we are running through way too much money.

 

We are in a a low to moderate cost of living area.

[Mandy in TN]

Food - I figure $6/ day/ person if everyone eats the same meals together at home. For a family of 6-8 with teens this comes to $36-$48/ day or $252- $336/ week on groceries. Dog food expenses would depend greatly on the size of the dog. Let's say cheap dog food for two mid-sized/ 30lb dogs runs about $25/ week. If I were to guess low, I would say at least $275/ week or $1100/ month for food, but with 4-6 teen boys this would be no eating out and nothing special.

 

Gas - Gas for two cars can also vary greatly depending on the cars, the area in which you live and the number of activities in which you participate. Let's say $50/ week / vehicle or $400/ month on gas in 2 vehicles.

 

Clothes, household and misc- These can be all over the place. One month it may just be a container of pine-sol and another month you may need prom dresses, a new mattress and a Christmas tree. Over the course of a year let's say that each teen and adult conservatively spends $500 on clothes. So, multiply by 6-8 and divide by 12: $250- $333 or about $292/ month just on clothes.

 

Without replacing or repainting anything or purchasing any cleaning products, my guesstimate comes in at about $1792. Is that close?

Mandy

Edited November 25, 2011 by Mandy in TN

[AFwife Claire]

We live in Northern VA, which is definitely a high cost of living area! We put just about everything on our Sams credit card (which we pay off each month) to get cash back. This also gives us a pretty good feel for how much and where we spend, since the only thing on your list we don't put on there is cell phones (we have 2 non-smart phones on a 3 year old contract, so that is only less than $70/month). Our monthly bill is averaging around $2500, and we have 8 kids ranging from 14 1/2 down to 7 months. We almost never buy new clothes (lots of good consignment sales, plus good friends who give us clothes), and we spend very little on stuff like Christmas/birthday gifts. Does that help?

[Quiver0f10]

We are spending $300 a week on food( this included food co-op, cleaning, hygiene, paper products etc), $150/week on gas and clothing is only bought when we need it and purchased at consignments. For house hold purchases that kind of works the same as clothing in that we don't buy much unless we really need it and then we shop for the cheapest option.

[Mandy in TN]

oop I should have read the replies.

Medium budget - living in an area where food is a bit on the high side.

My spending is about $400-$500/week (healthy-ish food) for the household budget. I have big eaters and two large dogs. Also, gas for cars is not cheap and costs about $60/week for both cars. PS lunches. 5 pay-as-you-go cell phones too, run about $50/month. We need the phone as teens don't drive and I am running them back and forth and they are constantly on field trips.

Problem is, I think it is center line and dh thinks it is lavish.

I see that at least some of yours are eating ps lunches. That is probably considerably more than $2/ meal that you can get away with as a group. I do think that is a lot of money on food, but I know a mom whose teens drink a ton of soy milk/ rice milk and her food expenses are probably that high. I know another that family that uses a ton of cow milk. I would just tell mine tough bananas. If it is gone, drink water. If the money isn't there, sometimes the top of the line organic and name brand foods stay at the grocery and the cheaper stuff comes home.

 

$60/week for both cars for gas is cheap and $50/ month for 5 phones sounds like a good deal.

 

Sorry your dh needs/ wants the budget cut.

Hope it works itself out-

Mandy

[5KidzRUs]

We live in Northern VA, which is definitely a high cost of living area! We put just about everything on our Sams credit card (which we pay off each month) to get cash back. This also gives us a pretty good feel for how much and where we spend, since the only thing on your list we don't put on there is cell phones (we have 2 non-smart phones on a 3 year old contract, so that is only less than $70/month). Our monthly bill is averaging around $2500, and we have 8 kids ranging from 14 1/2 down to 7 months. We almost never buy new clothes (lots of good consignment sales, plus good friends who give us clothes), and we spend very little on stuff like Christmas/birthday gifts. Does that help?

 

It does help. I am trying to find out what is normal - my feelings are mixed - I am not sure if I spend too much or if my dh's guilt trips are affecting my judgement.

There are ways to cut back - soup and stews each night, no cell phones ... No sports ... on the other hand ... So begins my internal arguments :001_huh:

[Renee in NC]

I would say about $1100-1200 for all of that. I drive a large van, so the gas is more than it would be otherwise.

 

$800 food and household

$200 Gas

$35 dog food

$100 clothes and misc.

 

This would be a family of 8.

 

ETA: Changed my mind on the dog food - I thought you said you had 6-8 DOGS!

[Renee in NC]

Medium budget - living in an area where food is a bit on the high side.

My spending is about $400-$500/week (healthy-ish food) for the household budget. I have big eaters and two large dogs. Also, gas for cars is not cheap and costs about $60/week for both cars. PS lunches. 5 pay-as-you-go cell phones too, run about $50/month. We need the phone as teens don't drive and I am running them back and forth and they are constantly on field trips.

Problem is, I think it is center line and dh thinks it is lavish.

 

I think it is lavish, but my dh doesn't bring home that much more a week!:tongue_smilie:

 

If we had it, I would spend it.;)

[Joyofsixreboot]

Feeding 9 including 2 teen locusts and a vegetarian/gluten free. I spend about $200/week on food/beverages. It used to be less :glare:. All lunches are taken along for everyone who needs one. We don't eat out. Gas is expensive with 3 vehicles running and living 20 miles from anywhere. I'm guessing it's about $8-/week. We have 4 tracfones to $44/mo on phones.

[MamaT]

We have 4 kids still at home, who all eat like adults, 1 dog, and 4 cats. We just changed to buying everything except dairy and fresh produce in bulk (enough for 6 months) to save money. We are spending about $450 a week on household expenses, which for us means gas, food (putting back money to buy bulk again), paper goods, incidentals, pocket money, and the kid's activities. That doesn't include any bills, our 5 cell phones, or clothes. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, it just seems to be what it takes for us.

[butterflymommy]

family of 9--

 

We spend about $250/ week on food, paper products, and toiletries. ($1000/ month)

 

1 van-- which we intentionally try not to drive much-- about $25/ week on gas ($100/month)

 

clothes-- we do hand me downs, hubby buys on ebay for himself, I buy on sale. But it's probably close to $2000 on a bad year, less on a good year. So that's about $170 a month.

 

household-- this is a wide category! We spent nearly $20,000 having our floors repaired :001_huh: and still have a lot of repairs to do. Gutters are broken and rotting away in places, only 1 of the 4 bathrooms works reliably. Home repairs are our biggest expense beyond the mortgage. so this could be as much as $2000/ month...:001_unsure:

 

misc... I'm not sure what you include here. I include cleaning products with the grocery bill. Homeschool expenses, craft supplies, we usually budget about $1000/ a year so I'll say $100/ month. DH and I pay out of pocket for dental and prescriptions so that can add up fast, though we've avoided huge bills this year.

 

hth!

[gardenmom5]

too many variables.

 

income has little to do with family size, but much to do with discretionary spending - and what foods you buy, and where you buy clothes are discretionary.

 

food costs are not static and vary around the country, as are gas prices. commute distances and available alternative transportation modes vary.

[TKDmom]

Medium budget - living in an area where food is a bit on the high side.

My spending is about $400-$500/week (healthy-ish food) for the household budget. I have big eaters and two large dogs. Also, gas for cars is not cheap and costs about $60/week for both cars. PS lunches. 5 pay-as-you-go cell phones too, run about $50/month. We need the phone as teens don't drive and I am running them back and forth and they are constantly on field trips.

Problem is, I think it is center line and dh thinks it is lavish.

 

We're spending about $400/week for food, clothes, and household expenses. But my kids are small and they eat like birds (I don't have dogs either). I'm not looking forward to the increase in my food bill when I have 3 teenagers at once. We spend about $70/week in gas, and I feel like I never leave the house. I think $50/mo on 5 cell phones is also very reasonable, too. DH's cell phone alone costs more than that. I can understand your husband's concern. I feel like we should be able to live on about half of what I spend (like when we had a tiny apartment with one baby, one car, and access to cheap food :tongue_smilie:). It always surprises me how much money it takes to have kids and own a house...

[KidsHappen]

My monthly budget for gas, groceries and household item is approximately $1400 per month for the last six months. we have six people in the family, 2 cars, two dogs and four cats. Considering it cost approximately $50-$70 to fill our gas tanks I don't think that is bad at all. I would think it is about average. We don't have to count pennies but we can't just buy whatever we want either.

[FaithManor]

Things 1, 2, and 3 are male locusts aged 11-14. Like the crop decimaters of the mid-1800's, they thrive on the carnage of grocery stores and sometimes I honestly think that if I left them home alone long enough, they'd cannibalize each other!

 

We do a lot of gardening with my folks and thankfully, produce is cheap here. So, I have a year's worth of salsa, green beans, asparagus, dilly beans, pickles, pasta sauce, pinto beans, kidney beans, baked beans, california veggie mix, and peaches in the pantry. I also have 2 bushel of sweet corn, several quart bags of broccoli, cauliflower, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries in the freezer. I dehydrated 20 red peppers, three huge stalks of celery, several bunches of leeks, and five quarts of tomatoes. Oh, and there are 10 pint containers of applesauce in the freezer too. I'd say all of this cost $200.00 or less, probably quite a bit less because the blackberries came from my property, the raspberries from my dad, and the other produce we didn't grow (kidneys, pintos, peaches, and apples) were purchased from an Amish farmer whose prices are incredibly reasonable. I buy only organic bananas, potatoes, carrots, and salad greens in the produce department of the store.

 

I haven't recently totaled up receits, but my best guess is we spend about $500.00 a month in groceries now. We didn't grow a pig this year so I don't have cheap pork in the freezer to fill them up on. But, the meat market had a deal on bacon ends for $1.49 a lb. We bought 50 lbs and bagged it up which will at least keep them in some bacon until we grow another pig.

 

I shop at a Mennonite Bulk Food store and the cost is easily 30-40% below the supermarket. They carry a lot of organics. I also cook exclusively from scratch and that probably helps keep the cost down.

 

I do not buy expensive toiletries and make as much of my own as I can which also helps. I use vinegar, Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap, and tea tree oil, lavender, or lemon oil added to wash water for disinfecting. I make my own laundry soap and spend about $6.00 for a six week supply. I'd say that we don't pay more than $25.00 per month in toiletries unless I have to replace a make-up item. I do not use paper plates and paper towels which helps cut down on that recurring expense.

 

Gas for the cars - DH works from home and only drives into the city twice per month. That is a huge help because essentially, all of our running is local and I'm being very careful how much running I do. I'd say we do not use more than $150.00 per month in gas. We used to pay dd's $75.00 a week in gas to commute to college classes and paramedic training. However, she has been hired at her EMS of choice and can now pay her own.

 

Cell phones - Dh's is paid for by work and I do not carry one. DD has one and she pays about $54.00 a month. She can't have a cheap pay as you go phone because of the nature of her work - she receives work-related pages on her cell.

 

That cat eats about $6.00 a month in cheap cat food...she is old and we are not putting expensive stuff into her now. Lewis, the cocker spaniel with the big heart murmur who is very young and we are trying to keep very healthy, gets a much more expensive brand - no fillers - that runs us about $28.00 a month. The lizards eat about $5.00 of crickets and mealyworms between them. The chickens and ducks eat about $10.00 a month in feed. So, about $44.00 for the animals.

 

Clothing - well, this is a killer. The boys are very thin and very tall. None of the department stores we've frequented have pants for them in stock very often. They are all in growth spurts and hand-me downs do not work when the oldest manages to kill all of the clothes which look sad on the middle boy which look like rags on the youngest. I have a couple of nice re-sale shops where I can get nice shirts, hoodies, dress shirts, and occasionally, shoes at a good price. I buy the oldest a new winter coat each year at the end of season sale at Land's End. However, shoes are getting harder to get used for oldest. He has a men's size 9 foot now and a very narrow heel. I'd say that I still get away with $50.00 or less per month for clothing because of the resale stores and clearance racks. I don't let the boys wear their precious, expensive Land's End or Wrangler Cowboy Cut jeans (from the tack shop at an ouchy price) for more than special events and Wednesday night youth service. When at home homeschooling and playing, used exercise pants from the thrift store (with those handy, dandy drawstrings or if necessary, a big tuck made on my sewing machine) will do. I rarely buy anything for myself and at some point will probably have to do something about that.

 

Less than a $1000.00 for 4 weeks. We do occasionally get pizza for the boys and at very special times, such as DD's landing her EMS job, seafood. But, we don't eat out much at all. DD eats very healthy so she packs a lunch and snacks for her 12 hr. shifts which will serve her well as she is trying to save money for more college.

 

Faith