Does anyone have any tips on how to feed and cloth a large family? I have 9 children and I need advice!?

We live on a tight budget. Can anyone who has a big family give me some of your tips about penny-pinching ideas. How can you afford clothing? What is your monthly food bill? Any advice is good advice for me! Thanks so much!Does anyone have any tips on how to feed and cloth a large family? I have 9 children and I need advice!?
You can get school clothes for the kids to grow into after the season ends and they go on clearance sale.


Yard sales for summer clothes, play clothes, bicycles and things like that.


I grew up in a family of nine, we ate a lot of beans and beef stew, spaghetti, things we could make large amounts of that were healthy but economical. Chrismas our main gift was a group thing like a trampoline or something all could use then a little personal gift.


We shopped at costco or places we could buy all toiletries and food in bulk so it cost about half of the regular price grocery stores.


We went to day old bread stores for all the cookies and goodies for sack lunches and of course bread. We bought extra for the freezer to stalk up when they had a lot of the things we used.


We clipped coupons and once a month took all our glass cans and plastic to a recycling center and redeemed them for cash.


We did all our wash in cold water unless it was rank and used a clothesline to dry them.


I don't remeber the food budget but it wouldn't be relevent because I am middle aged now.Does anyone have any tips on how to feed and cloth a large family? I have 9 children and I need advice!?
consign/sell on ebay- use the money you made from your old clothes to buy new clothes. You can buy whole lots (bundle of clothing). You can use craigslist.com for furniture (and other stuff too, i guess). Go online to coupon sights and print print print! Use as many coupons as possible! I can save $30 just in coupons while grocery shopping. Have a fuel economic car like a toyota corolla (up to 38mpg)- i know you tote around 9 so you can have more than one fuel economic car or you can find the most economic large family car. Grow some of your own veggies in your yard, bake your own bread, etc. buy less ';convenience cost items'; like prepackaged and individually packaged and ready to eat type things. i hope something i said helped or sprung new ideas. i don't have 9, just one, but i figured any help is help, right?
The Salvation Army or Goodwill and Walmart are some great places to shop around on a budget.
I don't have a large family, I have 3 boys , me %26amp; my husband %26amp; adog. But we also live on a tight budget as I am disabled and cant work=) I frequent the Good will often, clip coupons but only use them for the things I actually need(I have found most of the coupons are for thing I wouldnt normally buy anyway, so to save 50 cents on something that costs 3 dollars that i wouldnt buy unless I had a coupon isnt really worth it!) If they are involved in sports go to a Play It Again sport stores, they are sporting goods that are gently used, I find it particularly helpful for wrestling shoes as they dont ever wear them out in a season only outgrow them before the next! Also I keep the hand me downs that dont ever go out of style ie. Nike %26amp; Adidas t-shirts and shorts=) As far as the food bill, we spend approx 300 dollars on lunch money alone, we start packing when things get really tight!


GOOD LUCK! MY GOODNESSi DONT KNOW HOW YOU DO IT, I FEEL POOR W/ ONLY 3 KIDS=(
I know that the Duggar family shops at thrift shops. I think they go like once a year when everything is half off. You might look at their website for tips. If anyone knows how to stretch a dollar for the family, it's them.





http://www.duggarfamily.com/index.html
You didn't mention in your question what age your youngest children are - I assume they're babies because you're in the Newbie and Baby section.





The best cost saving thing I've gone about is switching my daughter to cloth diapers. It costs the same for a pkg of one dozen cloth diapers as a case of disposables, and the cloth ones you can use over and over again. It's cut the baby's cost in half. Yes, it's a little more work but with nine kids what's one more load of laundry. The bonus is that it's better for the environment and your baby's bottom too! My daughter's bottom is so much softer using cloth. Plus you can reuse the same diaper with subsequent children so your initial investment goes very far. You can do some google searches on cloth diapering, or ask questions on here, and come up with good advice on how to do it.





My mom is the second oldest of nine kids - they didn't have a lot of THINGS but they had oodles of LOVE!!!!
I have 3 boys and a husband and a dog and we are in the AF, so we are on a budget. My oldest is 14 years and my middle one is 11 years and my baby is 5 months old. I am pretty lucky b/c my Dad buys the baby his diapers and wipes and my Mom is a nurse and gets me a couple of cases of formula a month. Our food bill is anywhere from $400.00-$600.00 a month and this includes all the cleaning supplies and baby foods and formula that my Mom dosn't get. I only have to buy about 2 large cans a month and what my Mom gets from work covers him for the rest of the month. As far as clothes, I have found that Target and Walmart are pretty good, and I go to Carters for the baby and Once Upon a Child. My teenagers like certain styles and shoes and Kohl's has been good for us to find things there. Sam's and Costco is good for large families and also you should check to see if you qualify for WIC or food stamps. I have found that shopping for the food once a week instead of every two weeks helps us to save and not over spend.
When money was tight for me I shut off my cable and Internet. Also got rid of cell phones. Try it. It is amazing how much money you save! I come from a big family and I got a Lot of hand me downs until my big sister gained WAY TOO MUCH WEIGHT! Then I was too skinny for her clothes so I finally got new clothes. Also, only shop sales and shop year around. I only by clothes on clearance and only when I see a good deal. But my kids get clothes all the time.