Anyone here with 2+ children and doesn’t get government assistance?

Question

No judgment just curious. My husband and I are a middle-class family with a toddler and we are pregnant with baby number two due in March 2022. Most of my friends have lots of children but they all qualify for Medicaid and food stamps and a lot of assistance. I wanted three children but after I had one I realized how truly expensive it is to have children and I’m just curious if there’s other people here who have 2+ children and don’t get assistance and aren’t necessarily wealthy? What are your finance hacks or things that help you save money and care for your children?

Answer

We don’t qualify for assistance and I feel like most middle class families wouldn’t qualify. Depending on your area you just need to weigh out if it’s more economical to have both parents working and use daycare or have one parent stay home. Plan meals and cook mostly at home. Limit extras like date nights and anything you don’t need.

Answer

We are considered middle class and have a 4 year old and another on the way. No government assistance or help at all. We aren’t really big spenders and have never had any trouble staying on top of our expenses and still saving a fair but each month. We don’t have anything financed other than our mortgage. Try to buy things used when possible, don’t eat out much and don’t go on many vacations. We stick to camping as our “vacations” which we really enjoy and allows us to get away and unplug and doesn’t cost a lot. If I need to buy something new I never pay full price. Always wait for it to go on sale.

Answer

Not a lot of middle class qualify for government assistance.. but you should look into Dave Ramsey

Answer

The only assistance we got was medicaid for the kids because my work insurance for kids was like $500 monthly. We literally cut all extras. No new phones, no eating out, not even gifts for holidays etc we would get something we needed for the house, drove older cars, very little shopping, entertainment at home. It was rough especially when theyre little and need more diapers or formula etc but we made it work.

Answer

We have two children and are middle class (we both teach in a rural school district with no union). Kids don’t have to be as expensive as some think. There’s lots of stuff they don’t need and lots of ways to save money.

Answer

We don’t get any assistance and are middle class to a little below middle class. We don’t eat out much. I don’t have any hobbies besides liking to go on walks so that’s cheap! My husband has a hobby that’s expensive but we set a certain budget for both of us. So I get X fun money per month and he gets X fun money. When it’s gone it’s gone. We worked on paying off all our debt (cars, furniture) before we had kids so we didn’t have to stress as much about daycare $$. We just have our mortgage. I think working to pay off those monthly payments saved us. Seeing $600 go to a car payment each month was sad. Now we have that $600 to put towards daycare/fun money/trips/repairs/etc.

Answer

I have 3 going on 4 without assistance.  They are definitely expensive little buggers, even moreso as they get older.  We dropped $700 on baseball equipment for 2 of them this past season, plus $300 registration.  Lord help me when they all get into sports😳😂

Answer

We are middle class and have a 7 year old and I’m 27 weeks pregnant. I haven’t qualified for assistance since our son was 2. We make good money and we have nice things but they aren’t necessarily expensive. For example my husband doesn’t have a lot of shoes like his friends and I’m not dripping in designer bags like mine. But we are the only couple who does everything 100% completely on our own - no housing assistance, no food stamps, Medicaid, cash assistance etc. We put our son and our household first. And try to save a portion of our paychecks for emergencies and things like vacations or other big purchases we want to make. Just spent over $600 on football for our son but he really likes it and it’s important to us that are kids are able to do sports.

Answer

I do not use any government assistance.
We have three children. My job covers all of our medical insurance. My husband is self employed. 
If it wasn’t for my job we would have to be on state insurance for sure.

Answer

Most of my friends/family have 2+ kids and none of them qualify for assistance but aren’t necessarily “wealthy”
Personally; we shop at Costco, live in a small house that is well below what we could afford, drive a 7 and 10 year old car(not paid off but payments are reasonable) and just generally don’t live beyond our means. We were working through Dave Ramsey’s baby steps before I got pregnant. Once we found out we started dumping money in an account for medical bills, rather than paying things off. 
I’m a cheap ass. We do 1 vacation per year, using lots of airline miles and staying with family. We limit eating out to once per week. I cook at home, meal planning around what we have, rather than running to the multiple times per week.

Anyone here with 2+ children and doesn’t get government assistance?

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