BuzznBelle'smom
<font color=red>There are tomato-ey paw prints all
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2002
- Messages
- 3,869
Well, we jut had #4, and our family is complete. DH makes ~$60k base salary, and gets paid overtime, so how much he makes can vary--with the little guy, he's cutting back for the time being, but that will change when we work the kinks out of the family and things settle back down.
My kids are very used to wearing second hand clothes, although DD10 is fond of the Old Navy sale racks. We rarely eat out, I shop sales and other bargains for just about everything. We find we have money for what we consider important. Also, although my kids do sports and activities, we've found inexpensive ways to accomodate them--for example, our local youth commission offers swim lessons free for 2 weeks in the summer. Sure beats paying ~$80 at the YMCA! Fortunately, none of the kids has found an activity that really requires huge $$ commitment.
We're also fortunate that MIL has more money than God--and she likes to take the grandkids to WDW! We're going in August, her treat, staying at the Poly on the Deluxe meal plan (3 meals/day). No way we could swing that. She also has established college accounts for the older 3 (waiting on the little guy's SSN). So, we figure that should take care of a lot of college, but we also have $$ set aside in our name that we have mentally earmarked as needed for additional college expenses.
We have a large house, but live in a rural community--fairly low taxes. We know people who hunt for food, garden, raise and butcher their own meat, etc. We don't do those things (well, DH hunts), and I'm not suggesting they're right for everyone, but there are choices you could make. Personally, I'll settle for shopping at Aldi's.
My kids are very used to wearing second hand clothes, although DD10 is fond of the Old Navy sale racks. We rarely eat out, I shop sales and other bargains for just about everything. We find we have money for what we consider important. Also, although my kids do sports and activities, we've found inexpensive ways to accomodate them--for example, our local youth commission offers swim lessons free for 2 weeks in the summer. Sure beats paying ~$80 at the YMCA! Fortunately, none of the kids has found an activity that really requires huge $$ commitment.
We're also fortunate that MIL has more money than God--and she likes to take the grandkids to WDW! We're going in August, her treat, staying at the Poly on the Deluxe meal plan (3 meals/day). No way we could swing that. She also has established college accounts for the older 3 (waiting on the little guy's SSN). So, we figure that should take care of a lot of college, but we also have $$ set aside in our name that we have mentally earmarked as needed for additional college expenses.
We have a large house, but live in a rural community--fairly low taxes. We know people who hunt for food, garden, raise and butcher their own meat, etc. We don't do those things (well, DH hunts), and I'm not suggesting they're right for everyone, but there are choices you could make. Personally, I'll settle for shopping at Aldi's.
