We have all been tightening our belts in this recession. The money never seems to go as far as one would like. Our daily living expenses as a whole just never seem to go down. Now imagine how difficult money management becomes if you have a very large family, like Jon and Kate Gosselin from Jon & Kate Plus 8.

Obviously raising kids can get expensive. Anyone who has children can attest to this. But the actual cost per child may shock you. A recent government study sponsored by the USDA actually put a dollar figure on this. The study involved looking at what the average middle class household would spend to raise a child to the age of 17. The major expenses the study looked at in order of cost from highest to lowest were:

1. Housing
2. Food
3. Child care and education

Based on their findings the average middle class household will spend $221,000 per child from the time they are born until they turn 17, and that's not even including clothing or medical care!

If we go back to the example of Jon and Kate, that is a whopping $1,768,000! That’s right, Jon and Kate can expect to spend more than one and three quarter million dollars raising their children! How can the average family possibly manage money in a situation like this, especially when you don't have a fancy television deal to help with expenses?

One thing that families with many children have going for them is that the housing costs decrease exponentially as the number of children increase. So long as the children don't mind sharing rooms with each other. But the other factors like food, child care and education will not decrease, but rather increase with time, due to inflation. Money management is a challenge for any family, but for large families the challenge is even greater. Here are some tips for managing these expenses:

1) Create a budget, and start planning now for your future expenses from school clothes next year to college in ten. Being prepared could be the difference between tens of thousands of dollars.
2) Look to save wherever you can: buying in bulk when it's a good deal, cutting coupons, shopping on certain days (like Tuesdays when stores introduce their weekly specials), and bargain shopping at thrift stores, Goodwill, and others will help reduce spending.
3) Save on childcare: from employer childcare flexible spending accounts to enrolling your children in pre-kindergarten, there are many ways to save without forfeiting the quality of care.
4) Everyone helps: create chores and tasks for your children to help around the house. As they get older set a budget for their expenses and if they want to go above and beyond that budget make them contribute monetarily. This includes clothing, shoes, haircuts, makeup, sports equipment, and vehicles. Babysitting for other neighborhood kids, cutting grass, having a paper route, or dog walking. These are all things children can do to make some extra money.

Being a frugal family takes hard work, but if you implement just a few of our tips your family will surely benefit in the long run.