- Jessica Jobson and her partner Kris have 10 children and have changed about 70,000 nappies between them
- Based in Adelaide, SA, the family of 12 wouldn’t have it any other way
- They have a few savvy tips and tricks to save money on food and gifts to make sure their children feel extra special on their birthdays and Christmas!
Here Jessica Jobson, 39, Adelaide, SA tells her story in her own words
Mum! I found one,’ cried Xavier, 10, proudly holding up a carrot.
‘That’s great, darling,’ I grinned.
Nearby, Allorah, six, was picking strawberries while Sebastian, four, dug enthusiastically beside her.
‘Mummy, look at this potato!’ he exclaimed.
Soon, Freya, three, joined in, while Linken, 12, headed off to collect some eggs.
Our garden may be squeezed onto a 458-square-metre suburban block, but it works hard.
We grow spinach, spring onions, broccoli, beetroot, strawberries, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, and herbs, while our 13 chooks produce plenty of eggs.
But for us, gardening isn’t just about saving money, it’s part of our homeschooling.
The kids learn about food, nature and how much work goes into feeding a family.
And when you’re feeding a dozen people, every carrot counts.
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At the end of the day, I’ll be cooking up dinner for my little gardeners plus my husband, Kris, 40, and our teens Gabby, 19, Emma, 17, Avah, 15, and Elly, 13.
Kris and I met in high school and married when he was 21 and I was 19. We hadn’t planned on having this many children, but apparently, we’re very fertile, even when using contraception!
Despite growing lots of our own fruit and veg and keeping chooks, our grocery bill is around $750 a week.
Costs have gone up so much, it’s about $200 more than it was a year ago. We go through 15 to 20 litres of milk, seven to 10 loaves of bread and 10 to 12 rolls of toilet paper a week.
I mainly shop online at Woolworths – with so many children, pushing a giant trolley around a supermarket isn’t worth the mental load. And I ensure I spend enough to avoid extra delivery fees.
I also save my rewards points for Christmas. At the moment, I have more than $400 sitting there. That’s my little Christmas nest egg!
When they’re on special, I buy extra quantities of things we regularly use.
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I also shop at Costco for bulk items such as pet food for Luna, our labrador, 10, and Brolly, our staffy, nine, as well as laundry liquid, paper towels and flour.
Baking my own bread saves heaps, but I can get through 25kg of flour in a month. We buy meat in bulk – recently we bought a quarter of a cow in portions from our local butcher for $750 and put it in the freezer.
‘That should last us a while!’ Kris said, as we squeezed it all in there.
I cook fresh meals daily, and one favourite is chicken risotto. It’s chicken breast in stock with leeks or onion and arborio rice, cooked on the stove for 25 minutes.
Emma makes a mean carbonara from scratch using 99c packs of pasta, bacon, eggs and grated cheese. It only costs about $12 to make – around a dollar a serve!
Most meals cost $30 to $40 though, and takeaway is very rare. If we all went to McDonald’s, it would cost around $140 to $150 for one meal.
Snacks are another area where I’ve had to be firm.
I buy the week’s ration and, once they’re gone, they’re gone. ‘Mum, we’re out of chips!’ the kids will say.
‘Yep. You’ll have to have fruit!’ I tell them.
In winter, we rely heavily on blankets, only turning on the heating when someone is sick, while our air conditioning in summer is powered by solar panels.
Clothing is another area where we save. We buy clothes on clearance from Kmart, shop at op shops, and repair or upcycle things where we can. I also sew, as do the older girls, so we can make some of our own clothes.
For fun, we love going to the beach and on bushwalks, which are free!
At home, everyone has jobs suited to their age, helping with the animals, garden, cooking, dishes, washing and bins.
I get through about 14 loads of washing a week.
‘How can there possibly be more washing?’ I’ll sometimes wonder, but there always is!
Kris helps with the children, transport, homeschooling and household jobs around his work as a groundsman, while I also run my own disability-support business.
Most of our children are homeschooled, so our days are very full.
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With 10 children, birthdays could easily become financially overwhelming. Each child gets a gift, a cake, and can choose an outing with Mum or Dad, a group activity or a party. This year, Xavier chose to spend his 10th birthday fishing with his dad.
For Christmas gifts, I buy clearance items whenever I see something suitable throughout the year, and hide them in the wardrobe. Then, come December, I match the presents to the children.
They usually get five or six things each, which means wrapping around 50 or 60 gifts.
‘Wow, look at all those presents!’ the kids exclaim on Christmas morning.
Recently, I changed my last ever nappy, as Sebastian was fully toilet trained. Freya was potty trained a year ago and out of nappies in June.
‘That’s it, I’m done!’ I grinned to Kris.
I worked out that for 10 kids over the past 19 years, I’d changed around 70,000 nappies. Half of those were cloth nappies which also meant a lot of washing!
Having a big family means the children always have someone to play with, someone to talk to, and someone to blame when something goes wrong!
It may be noisy, messy and occasionally feel like I’m running a small village, but there’s always someone to give you a hug or tell you they love you, and Kris and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
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