Hi all! We are a family of 6. DH and I are both 30 and our children are DS 6, DD 4, DS 3, and DD 9mo. We currently both work technically full time. I work for the federal govt (AF civilian) in finance and my husband works for UPS/cuts grass on the side. Having our schedule set up that way has helped us tremendously. My husband works at UPS unloading semis from 4am-8am. The pay is pretty good after 10 yrs ($18/hr) but the benefits are incredible. He *should* receive a pretty darn good pension after just 30 yrs (age 49) and the healthcare costs us about $400/yr out of pocket. Daughters $266 diaper rash prescription just cost us $0! Don't know how much longer we'll be able to ride that gravy train but it's a huge savings for us. My mom then comes over for a few hours till hubby gets home and on MWF stays with the kids all day for free. Thankfully she only charges in love, jk! DH takes care of their 1 acre property, I help my mom save money, and we feed them meals fairly often. Hubby is able to cut grass on the side three days a week and then stays home with the kids two days. It's not always pretty but to think about the amount we have saved in daycare is considerable.
Another big saver for us is annual consignment sales in our area and ebay. I volunteer for a group that raises money for the local childrens hospital. We have a sale in the fall and sale in the spring. I sell most of our stuff through these sales making around $500 each sale. I can then also find great deals on things we need (clothes, games, books, sporting equipment, Christmas presents even). I've scored deals like $100+ magnatiles sets for $7, bags of automoblox cars for $5, DDs beloved Kelli Kelly shoes. Rand new for $10! Anything nicer like ugg boots I bought my daughter at a garage sale for $10, wore for a year and then sold on ebay for $40. I make about $1200/yr selling their used stuff on ebay.
Our house fits us just right....4 bedroom, 2 bath ranch with a finished basement. We recently put a third full bathroom in the basement. DH did like others mentioned and jack hammered up the floor himself to plumb for it. We'll eventually finish the connecting room as our oldest decides he wants his own space. Probably cost $1k between drywall, carpet, and an egress window. Other than that our home is 100% remodeled as we've done slowly over the last 8 years here. Owe about $80k and it appraised at $209k before third bathroom, so maybe $215k now.
We also have 2 rental properties (so far) which have kind of been our college back up plan for the kids. The first one kind of fell into our laps as my mom is a realtor and the small local bank that owned it was begging to get it off their books. Second one popped up a year later. We figured if we had them on 15 yr mortgages, they'd be paid off by the time our oldest 2 went to college and would be outputting around 80% profit. We are still putting $125/kid in a 529 each month though and have for each kid since birth...
I feel like overall we live a pretty simple lifestyle.....eat out. Anne 2-3x/month now, buy half cow per year for $2.50/lb (grass fed), groceries around $100/wk, paid cash for 2007 suburban, 2012 ford f150, and 2003 Honda accord, don't really drink alcohol as it's too costly, very minimal cable ($43/mo) only because my mom doesn't know how to operate Apple TV), $50/yr magic jack, $20/mo high speed internet through AT&T, etc. our biggest expense though is the kids. Oldest son does some type of sport in the fall (either soccer, tennis or football), two sessions of YMCA basketball from oct-March), lacrosse in spring and swimming in the summer but he also does a father/son program through the YMCA hoping it would improve his behavior (one on one time) as well as destination imagination that they harp is so good for their development (and free due to me coaching). My oldest daughter does comp cheerleading and is going into her second year. It's a whopping $2800/yr though which is crazy. She loves it though and it's given her such self confidence where she started off soooo shy and now can stand in an arena with 5,000 watching her. We recently switched gyms though as the new one has some incredible fundraising opportunities (local aaa baseball games net about $100-$200/game/person, casino nights, bowling nights, spaghetti dinner, etc) so hopefully that can bring down cost. We also pay a lump sum at the start to save 10%. She also does soccer through YMCA and next year wants to do dance and Girl Scouts instead of soccer. Youngest DS is just starting YMCA soccer at 3. He's dying to be like the older kids so for $68, I guess.
We also take the kids to as many free learning opportunities as possible. We have an incredible park district, so the kids take some type of free class at least once per week. This week there was a parent and me class for the baby, a skunk walk for my 3 yr old, tennis for my 4 yr old and the oldest went to outdoor rec and made his own kite today. We ALS have one of the top libraries in the country so the kids go there to play education games, check out their activities, go to story hour, and of course check out books/movies/video games/CDs. We buy a museum family pass to go to often and also use reciprocating membership on other museums/zoos.
We do take a bigger family trip per year. This year is disney staying on property/ flying /food / souvenirs for $4k for 9 nights (pretty thrifty sadly enough) but normally we go to destin fl in sept. We split a condo with both sets of parents and it cost us all about $400/couple for the week. We drive and make most meals at the condo and bring along craft activities to do rather than spend $300 going to build a bear lol!
We camp in between trips to keep our sanity. This is also DH and I's date night a lot as we put the kids to bed about 8:30 and sit around the campfire talking till all hours of the night. We bought a pop up (with all the bells and whistles) for about 60% of what it was worth and paid cash. Figure we can use it a couple years and sell for what we paid.
As for cars/cell phone once the kids get older, DH is a big fan of paying for everything themselves. He started cutting grass at age 10 to pay for things and expects the same for our kids. He also bailed (sp?) hay on the weekends. He sometimes had to pay his parents bills to keep lights on, but he also bought a car, paid the insurance, paid for gas, paid for his clothes/activities/sports/school fees. So he's a big believer in the fact that if he could do it, so can they. They also have been taught from birth that 50% of all money they get goes into savings, 25% goes to charity, 25% to spend. Just using this principal they have about $8,000 combined. I'd personally like to use what they have saved together when oldest needs a car, we'll match what they have, and then all 4 have to share and work out a schedule. Teaches them respect, sharing, communication. But someone also pointed out to me that they could all 4 be in a car during an accident too, so I don't know what the answer is. I like the 3.6 gap or you don't drive idea!
Probably my biggest battle right now is spending money on myself. I'm a mother of four and only 30 yrs old. I spent $40/mo on weight watchers for 9 mo and dropped almost 30 lbs. none of my clothes fit and I'm living with the same three pairs of pants and maybe 10 shirts. I have no jewelry left the kids haven't broke. I have no makeup that wasn't expired and needed tossed. I'm sick of my hair being cut only twice a year. I keep reading frugal fashion blogs and makeup blogs and want to go out and buy it all. Thankfully with our schedule I don't have time to buy much, but still.....it's an area I want to spend more in but I know I really can't/shouldn't to meet our financial goals.