Most of this is totally optional. I have a dozen kids, and I'm sure not spending that kind of money per kid.
Births are usually cheap. You can go it alone for $0 or get a midwife for $2000 to $6000. Most of us have health insurance with an out-of-pocket maximum. For example, mine tops out around $11,000. Crazy bills can usually be negotiated, with the hospital very aware that you might just not pay at all.
Child care is sort of free (though an opportunity cost) when done by family. That choice also strengthens the family relationships. It scales well, with older kids assigned to help younger kids.
Housing isn't bad unless you insist on a bedroom for each kid. You need a house for yourself anyway, and most houses have 3 bedrooms. Homeschool to avoid the school district bidding wars.
Food... is a bit of an issue. I go through about $4000 per month, but I'm not living on beans and rice. Being more frugal, $100 per kid per month should be possible for a large family.
Transportation can be mostly avoided.
Clothes become cheap due to hand-me-down policy.
Sports can be cheap. You don't have to sign up for hockey. Play stick ball.
My catholic elementary school was only 4k per child in orange county and my high school 10k. For elementary, all kids past three were free and this being catholic school there were several large families. And my brother and I are both successful... Married with kids. My brother retired early actually and owns multiple homes and we'll be buying our first this year. Just a data point that california is overcharging the state for the quality of education provided. My mother was a public school teacher and the money is mostly wasted.
I get dual-enrollment for free here in Florida, which most of my kids use to get AA degrees, so the state/county is paying something. I spent about $1000 for AP Chemistry labs and possibly about that much on all kinds of textbooks.
Expenses are primarily food, at about $4000 per month. The rest isn't usually notable unless something is broken, such as when our 4-ton air conditioner is low on coolant or gets the fan stuck. Normally somebody needs surgery (cracked skull, rib cage correction, etc.) so my medical bills hit the yearly out-of-pocket maximum at around $11,000. We probably do 100 to 200 miles per week, fuel being $2.25, so that is pretty much nothing.
I paid off my home in 8 years. It's 3500 square feet on 0.39 acre, about 0.9 mile from the beach. I got it for about $310,000 after the crash.
How big a family do you feed on $4000/month? At first it seemed a bit high but I know nothing about your household so won’t play the assumption game. I, my wife and my year old spend at most 1000 on food monthly. We eat quite healthy but my wife cooks daily so that saves a bit.
A few comments above I said "I have a dozen kids". With parents, that is 14 people.
We cook. I look for sale prices. We eat a lot of chicken, but we also get fish.
I count just 3 of you. Scaling up for family size and ignoring the sizes of the people, your $1000 would be $4666 for me. I guess I'm doing well to spend only $4000. Scaling the other direction, you'd be on a similar per-person budget if you spent $857 per month.
Not to discount, but I'm sure you benefit from buying in bulk as well. We are a family of 5, about as efficient with food costs ($250/week) (yet, also our preschoolers are still quite picky eaters).
I'm just enjoying your comments. Sounds like you're doing a lot of things right. Right on!
I buy normal packages from a normal supermarket. I try to buy a bit extra when there is a sale, but I only have two refrigerators and a chest freezer. What is "bulk" to most people can be eaten in a week. I might empty the supermarket's supply of sliced cheddar cheese when it goes on sale, grabbing 10 pounds of it, but we'll have that eaten within a week or two. Sometimes I'll grab all the extra-large packages of ground beef or an entire display box full of canned herring. We go through 2 gallons of milk per day. There just isn't any way to really stock up on things without more storage space, and I'd have to find a store that wouldn't run out of things when I go shopping.
Maybe I should see about having Sysco trucks deliver food. :-)
By bulk I mean the quantities not usually offered in grocery stores. Club-card-style outlets, basically. Of course; that's another trip, and a membership fee, and they don't always have everything you need like a typical grocery store will.
For us, it's always a struggle with waffles (And there's only 5 of us). If everyone eats two waffles in the morning (which happens 98% of the time) that's 10 waffles a day. Hardly anyone carries 48-counts so we end up grabbing as many 24-count boxes as we can and usually have to make another run by Sunday evening. Maybe when the kids get older we could switch to a waffle iron.
Births are usually cheap. You can go it alone for $0 or get a midwife for $2000 to $6000. Most of us have health insurance with an out-of-pocket maximum. For example, mine tops out around $11,000. Crazy bills can usually be negotiated, with the hospital very aware that you might just not pay at all.
Child care is sort of free (though an opportunity cost) when done by family. That choice also strengthens the family relationships. It scales well, with older kids assigned to help younger kids.
Housing isn't bad unless you insist on a bedroom for each kid. You need a house for yourself anyway, and most houses have 3 bedrooms. Homeschool to avoid the school district bidding wars.
Food... is a bit of an issue. I go through about $4000 per month, but I'm not living on beans and rice. Being more frugal, $100 per kid per month should be possible for a large family.
Transportation can be mostly avoided.
Clothes become cheap due to hand-me-down policy.
Sports can be cheap. You don't have to sign up for hockey. Play stick ball.