Tight budget doesn’t stop the laughter
“BIG families have more fun than little families,” grins 11-year-old McKenzie Sutton, who lives in a very noisy home in Cumbria with mum Nicole, dad Joseph and 10 siblings – Rhiannon, 14, Lacey, 12, Skylar, nine, Henley, seven, twins Cobi and Parker, six, Hadley, four, River, three, Ocean, two, and six-month-old Navy.
As the 11 youngsters wrap each other up in reams of toilet roll on Halloween, they are all having an absolute blast, which is all Nicole really wants.
Having had a tough childhood, 30-year-old supermum Nicole just wants to have fun with the kids and be there for them. “If you can’t have a laugh with your mum, what have we got?” she chuckles.
She says they survive paycheck to paycheck on Joseph’s £400-a-week coach driver salary. But the savvy mum counts every penny. “That will last at least a week,” she says, as the massive weekly food
I know exactly what I’m spending, I add it all up
shop arrives, containing four loaves of sliced bread and five boxes of cereal.
The food shop costs her between £100 and £200, but if they’re having a tough month, she can do it for £80.
“I go round the supermarket and add everything up, I know exactly what I’m spending,” she says, scolding 35-year-old Joseph for buying unnecessary cake bars.
“If something is twice the price it normally is, I’m not buying it. Meals depend on what food is on offer.”
On Sunday, she works at a chocolate shop in
Keswick. Working in the week isn’t possible as childcare is too costly.
Joseph is on daddy day care. “It’s hard because Dad just can’t handle us all by himself can he!” says McKenzie.
Each £95 shift Nicole earns goes in the present kitty – they spend £100 on birthdays and she does all the baking. Family days out are rare, but Nicole prides herself on being able to budget with next to nothing.
Nicole says: “We embrace everything – the mess, fun, laughter, crying, arguing, I’d never change it.”
NICOLE SUTTON ON HER SAVVY SHOPPING WAYS