Parents of large families have long known how to document, save and stretch their food and budget — and now a mother of eight in Michigan is revealing how she only spends $12,000 a year on groceries while she cooks and prepares dinner for him. older children.
Heather Bell, 53, and her husband, Luke, 51, had been trying to have a baby for eight years when they had their eldest son, David, aged 24, in 1999, as reported by SWNS.
Wanting to help more children and hearing success from others they know, they tried raising children.
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They went on to have six more children – and were able to conceive a son naturally.
As the family grew over time, mother Heather Bell had to learn to cook for them all and feed them well.
Mother of eight Heather Bell from Michigan still cooks dinner for her older children. “I don't mind cooking for my family – I don't know how to cook,” she said. (SWNS)
She said many of her children came to her home “with eating problems or trauma.”
Some used to eat a lot of fast food, as SWNS noted.
Today, with only her four children living at home, she still cooks for her family and spends about $1,000 a month on groceries, she said.
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He owns a chicken farm and construction business in the Upper Peninsula, Michigan.
He told SWNS, “I know they're old, but they're still my kids. They all come here for dinner. They're very close. I don't mind cooking for my family — I don't know how to cook. little.”
He added, “They all love to come here – they definitely take advantage of it.”
Heather Bell has published her own cookbook featuring “big-batch homestyle” meals. It's called “Mama Bell's Big Family Cooking.” (Amazon)
Heather Bell said of the way their family grew, “In six years we had six children. It was bam bam bam. I came from a big family, but I never really thought about having a big family myself.”
Regarding her cooking, she said she “had to change the way I did things… When the kids came to my house, I didn't want to prepare them for failure.”
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He said if “they are used to it [foods] like French fries and hot dogs,” and “mixed vegetables.”
He added, “I make a tater tot casserole in a 17-inch pan.”
At first he was spending $500 to $700 a week on food, he cut back and now sells once a month, he told SWNS.
Heather Bell (front, center) with her husband, Luke, and their children. (SWNS)
He raises his own beef and eggs and preserves his food through methods such as canning, which he says is now “more nutritious.”
Even though she has cut back on her income throughout the year, she doesn't hold back on Thanksgiving and Christmas for her children, she said.
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He gets seven small gifts and one major gift for each of his children, he said, averaging just over $600 each.
She told SWNS, “I start my list early with a notebook. I listen to my kids and take notes. I've been Christmas shopping since July.”
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Bell recently published her own cookbook, “Mama Bell's Big Family Cooking,” to help other large families with batch cooking. The book contains more than 100 recipes, according to her book, including recipes that children have asked her to make “over and over again.”
She said, “I've never found a cookbook for large families. Families like mine get sick of quadruple recipes.”
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The cookbook also shares a bit about the family, including her children's arrangement at home and how she adapted her cooking as the family grew.
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