Bh I grew up in a house with nine siblings keh.
There were times that my father had a good job and time that he did not the budget that they kept then and some of it now is a lot different than what you would expect in the current world
The cars if they even had 2 cars and this is in Miami where you need to have a car but at times we had to take the bus. We're always old cars. Even today my parents drive cars. My father got at government surplus auction for pennies (my parents both drive decommissioned old police cars... Cue blues Brothers "our mother of blessed acceleration, please do not forsake us"
Clothing was neighborhood swap, thrift shop etc
My mother often bought the cheaper day old bread. In the years before school vouchers, My parents could not always afford tuition.
Despite the chabad school's advertised policy "no child shall be denied a Jewish education for lack of payment" we were indeed kicked out of school
Rather, pulled out of class in the middle of the day and forced to sit in the administration hallway till our mother packed us up. Scars I still bear today .. waiting for someone to request mechila... It's never too late
In the end, many of us were home schooled at various stages
Things got better bh, everyone attended schools right for them and bh we all turned out fine!
Actually the last wedding was kind of self administered.. I doubt it cost more than 15k and was a fantastic wedding for 250+
I think you just gotta really prioritize. Its very hard, there's a level of budget that makes some feel poor.
As one of the people noted, perhaps the family may need to move to a more affordable community?
Florida now has fantastic vouchers bh (and the schools still bleed parents *ahem*)
We almost never ate out when younger, rarely pizza, high cuisine for us was mermelstein when in ch 😂
No vacations, my parents idea of vacation was crown heights for summer