Number of children and cost of living?

[TwinKristi]

ChurchPunkMom- Where in Northern CA. are you?? Having more than 3 kids around here is almost unheard of!! People think you're when you go for #4!! LOL Do you find that too?

People seriously think I'm batty for talking about #6! Dh even said that if we had a big house, lots of property and blablaba that he would be ok with having 10 kids!! I don't know if he's 100% serious, but I wouldn't put it past him. He loves babies and kids and is a great daddy. A friend I met on a birth board and moved to a smaller email group with just had her 7th baby earlier this yr. She's awesome and homeschools and BWs & CDs! She was probably the first person I ever heard of CDing!! LOL If they keep making normal vehicles with bigger seating that maybe we could do 7... LOL We could fit 6 kids in our Odyssey but anything more would require a Surburban or similar and more than that would require a big van!! LOL THAT is my limit!! hahaha!! Dh & I figure that as long as we're good parents and raising happy, healthy kids that they'll grow into good adults that will help do great things! We need more of that when you hear more and more about abused and neglected children!

[SandyG]

ido think about it. dh does too. i really want to pay david's college so we saving for that. and saving for old age. so right now dh is making decent money (6k/month). most 4K. goes to savings account. dh doesnt wawnt kids either as he says he too old and too exp. (he wants to 'retire' at 55 and that is only 6yrs away).

[sharebear2u]

When we were expecting #3 we moved from Southern CA to Southern IL. We moved away from DH parents, but close to my Mom and sis. The biggest difference is housing (as most people have metioned) It is so CHEAP here, compared to SO CA. We have a huge house on over an acre of land and our payments are about the same as our townhouse we owned in CA (and it was a bad neighborhood).Taxes are higher here.....8% instead of like 1% or 2% in CA, but the prices are so much lower, that it kind of works out the same. We have never regretted our choice to move. Our inlaws are retired and can visit for a couple of weeks at a time and we usually make a trip out there everyother year. With the internet, digital cameras, cellphones with no long distance, etc it isn't that hard (or expensive) to keep in touch. Personally, I think that it is well worth a move to have a good sized house and yard.

Sherrie

[annes_cottage]

Originally Posted by TwinKristi ChurchPunkMom- Where in Northern CA. are you?? Having more than 3 kids around here is almost unheard of!! People think you're when you go for #4!! LOL Do you find that too? People seriously think I'm batty for talking about #6! Dh even said that if we had a big house, lots of property and blablaba that he would be ok with having 10 kids!! I don't know if he's 100% serious, but I wouldn't put it past him. He loves babies and kids and is a great daddy. A friend I met on a birth board and moved to a smaller email group with just had her 7th baby earlier this yr. She's awesome and homeschools and BWs & CDs! She was probably the first person I ever heard of CDing!! LOL If they keep making normal vehicles with bigger seating that maybe we could do 7... LOL We could fit 6 kids in our Odyssey but anything more would require a Surburban or similar and more than that would require a big van!! LOL THAT is my limit!! hahaha!! Dh & I figure that as long as we're good parents and raising happy, healthy kids that they'll grow into good adults that will help do great things! We need more of that when you hear more and more about abused and neglected children!

We have a 2001 Chevy Express, it seats 15 passengers!! Go for more!!! lol Also our van was much cheaper than a minivan!!! Figure that one out!!

[Korbins Mommy]

I'm here close to Atlanta, Georgia (in the burbs). We live in a 3 bed 2 bath home with an acre fenced in backyard for $900 a month. It's nice and you can hear crickets singing and see stars at night. The commute is TERRIBLE though. It takes me an hour and sometimes more to make it to work 21 miles from home. My dh works (get this) 2 hours away from home. Yep....that's in no traffic. We've talked about moving closer to his work and me quitting my job to homeschool in a few years.

As for can we afford more babies? We both believe that God don't give you anything you can't handle. He just has a better impression of what you can handle than you do. I would love to have 4 boys. That's my dream.

[mmskids]

I do not think children cost much more after the first.

I totally agree. It's the initial cost that kills you. Though someone keeps telling me teenagers will eat us out of home. We'll see in another year when our oldest hits it..

Our 5th is 6 months and we are already thinking about number 6. I live in MA in the country since the schools are better. (average 4 bedroom is 450k) You end up making do with what money you have.

[MCR]

I'm in nor Cal too, in our neighborhood houses average about $400,000 for 3 bed two bath on an acre of land.
Dh makes just under $40,000 a year and we have three kids (one in private college, that costs as much as Dh earns)
We do fine, better than many friends who earn more than us. We thrift shop, buy in bulk, cook from scratch, raise chickens for eggs. and live as debt free as we can, we only have a mortgage and utilities, food and gas each month to pay.
It is possible to live cheaply in an expensive area, therefore affording more children if yu want them.

[MommaBelt]

WOW the cost of living is HIGH is some places I mean REALLY REALLY high. our apartment ( its probably about 1250 sqauare feet) is an older victorian house and we have the whole down stairs( bathroom, living room, formal dining room, two huge bedrooms kitchen utility room and basement, a partially fenced in back yard, and a shed and a huge barn out back. Its in a nice town where the average nicer home is about 200,000 ( thats high around here) and we pay 460 a month plus utilities. we were going to move to a bigger house thats 4 bedrooms two baths right downthe street but we thought 700 a month was too steep, maybe Ill have to rethink it. oh and DH/df ( whatever you wanna call him) makes around 60 k a year. I commend all you mommas that make it on such a tight income and budget.
to the OP - I hope you can find a happy medium.. is there any chance your mom would move closer to you?

[ChurchPunkMom]

Originally Posted by TwinKristi ChurchPunkMom- Where in Northern CA. are you?? Having more than 3 kids around here is almost unheard of!! People think you're when you go for #4!! LOL Do you find that too? People seriously think I'm batty for talking about #6! Dh even said that if we had a big house, lots of property and blablaba that he would be ok with having 10 kids!! I don't know if he's 100% serious, but I wouldn't put it past him. He loves babies and kids and is a great daddy. A friend I met on a birth board and moved to a smaller email group with just had her 7th baby earlier this yr. She's awesome and homeschools and BWs & CDs! She was probably the first person I ever heard of CDing!! LOL If they keep making normal vehicles with bigger seating that maybe we could do 7... LOL We could fit 6 kids in our Odyssey but anything more would require a Surburban or similar and more than that would require a big van!! LOL THAT is my limit!! hahaha!! Dh & I figure that as long as we're good parents and raising happy, healthy kids that they'll grow into good adults that will help do great things! We need more of that when you hear more and more about abused and neglected children!

I'm up in Folsom. Having more than 3 is pretty wierd around here too. People just *look* at us whenever we're out in public (esp since ours are all so little). I don't care except for when people make judgemental comments. One lady at my church said something like "You need to stop." when I was talking to my dad about "if we have any more..." She started off the conversation with "Are you so happy to finally have a girl?" (as everyone loves to ask..) and I said "Yeah, but if I have any more, I think I'd want another boy. I love boys!" and she says "Dang woman. You need to stop." Like it's any of her business. Ugh.. anyway. Every time we have one, dh starts telling everyone that we're done. Within a year (or less) he eases up and it becomes "if we have more". I tell him, as long as you haven't done anything permanent to prevent it, I'm not telling people we're done! He tells me "I'm content with the ones we have, but if you really want another, I'm ok."

We're working on trying to get out of CA. We're hoping to move to TN - preferably a rural area close to Memphis or Nashville. We'd like a decent sized house and around an acre of land. We'll see what happens!

[PandaBren]

Fab, I hear you about the OC. We moved from Yorba Linda to the IE last year. We sold our townhouse for the same price we paid for our new home (new construction). We could not afford a single family home in the OC with me staying at home. By the time we moved to the IE our house had already appreciated 25% and we couldn't afford to buy our house today. We have 3 children...not large but it seems to be more then our friends. I think average houses in the OC are 600,000+ and out here they are only $450-500,00. Since I stay at home our kids don't wear Nordstroms, and other big name brands, we don't take elaborate vacations, can't afford a good pre-school (we're home schooling, it's over $400 a month per child for pre-school), but they don't notice. We have more then enough food, cloths, a great house more toys then the kids need, we can support part of my craft habbit, lol and two cars so life is not bad at all! It's a give and take.

~Bren