Budgeting for a big family

[PrincessFiona]

Thanks for that insight, Marissa.

Andrew may be going to ND for college next year. If so, his car will be here for Alex. Even if he stays here, once he's back in the dorms his car will open up. Not sure about Amanda's though because she will be staying at home/working the next 2 years.
It sounds like you guys made it work. It must be possible.

[Sheherezade]

We have a "kid car" that we bought for 5k. It's a used late model Mazda. So far, we've had no repair issues. Kids pay for gas if they are in it and it needs it. We all use the car, though. It's just an extra family car. We don't expect to buy the kids cars for college. College is all about bikes or feet or public transportation in my mind. We didn't own a car as a family until we had a two year old, so my DH and I went 9 years completely car free and we were car free in college. We were in major cities, though. Still, the kids know we aren't too friendly about them "needing" cars. Luckily, our kids don't like them either!

I think it's just hard with a large family financially. I think we have it a lot easier with only two.

Not sure how your neighbors do it, but it think DD is right on that one.


Angie

[mommax3]

Budgeting for a big family

Our oldest drove our old Suburban when he started driving, and he is still driving it now at college (small school, 3 hours away &#128521. DS #2 is getting ready to start driving in December, and we are looking to spend 5-7K on a high mileage Civic or Accord for him. We pay for insurance and gas (we only pay for gas when the oldest comes home...he pays for whatever gas he uses while he's there).

[spaz]

Well we have a kid car, just one. For two years my oldest son doesn't get it at college. Then he will get it and my other son will not for 2 years. Then I guess my middle son will get it for his last couple of years. Then it will come home and my daughter will learn to drive on it. The boys will buy their own car when they graduate from college..

The only thing that might throw a wrench into all of this is this summer if my oldest one has an internship far away... Then I guess he will get the car... But then that means middle one and I will be sharing a car.... and he is talking about getting a job. I may just be stuck at home or taking hubby to work if I need the car like my mom used to do.

What has also helped us has been buying good cars and keeping them for 20 years.. Our Hondas have needed very few repairs..

As far as the neighbors.. I've already told you how we got in this good place in financial threads.. Some of it is family background/culture and some of it is choices. We waited to get married, had very little school debt, waited to have kids and have always been extremely frugal... We don't have cable. No one has a smart phone except my husband. ( Much to my middle child's chagrin...but if he wants it then he can pay for it. I don't see a legitimate reason why a teen needs a smart phone.) My middle son shakes his head all the time and doesn't get why we don't buy all the stuff everyone else he sees has... Well, when he grows up he can live his life the way HE wants to.

[Sheherezade]

As far as the neighbors.. I've already told you how we got in this good place in financial threads.. Some of it is family background/culture and some of it is choices. We waited to get married, had very little school debt, waited to have kids and have always been extremely frugal... We don't have cable. No one has a smart phone except my husband. ( Much to my middle child's chagrin...but if he wants it then he can pay for it. I don't see a legitimate reason why a teen needs a smart phone.) My middle son shakes his head all the time and doesn't get why we don't buy all the stuff everyone else he sees has... Well, when he grows up he can live his life the way HE wants to.

We have the same kind of relationship to the family cars as spaz, I guess. Sounds similar to our thinking.

As for the quote above, I think we can all understand how others are "getting along" when they don't have a bunch of stuff, or they have fewer kids, or better jobs. It's when you've got people next door that make less money, have more toys and more kids that it gets confusing. I can see how Kris' school teacher neighbors with vacation homes, boats and 6 kids leave her perplexed.

I have neighbors like that and I always assume it's inherited stuff or that they are paying only capital gains tax (13%) on their income since many are in financial fields. Who knows though?



Angie