We have had to reorganize our budget recently. With the addition of the baby, our expenses have gone up a little bit. Plus, I now have a lady who comes a couple times a week to help out so I can get some other work done that requires more concentration than I can muster with 7 children around clamoring for my attention! (For instance, when I'm paying the bills...)

Those few hours a week have been a great help to me! But we have had to really work it into our budget. We have done some debt consolidation but we really needed to evaluate our whole budget and expenses.

One thing I've done is really limit the number of shopping trips I take. For instance, instead of going to the grocery store twice a week and Costco every week, we take two trips to Costco per month - and then we have just one small trip to the grocery store every week, and pick up milk during the week as needed. (That's the one thing we ALWAYS run out of!)

Making a big pot of brown rice a few times a week also helps - it is so much healthier than bread, and so much cheaper, too. It goes great with just about everything. So it's a good "filler" food to add to our meals. Plus, I don't really like to give the kids too much wheat - so it's a much better choice all the way around.

When the kids have done extra work, instead of paying them, we let them pick out a movie at Blockbuster (we have a monthly thing where we get unlimited movies.)

I think it is really important for large families to really look at where the money is going - and better ways it could be used. Large families really need to focus on efficiency with everything, including time, space, AND money. One good place for info on this kind of thing is: Basics of Organizing which has helped me a lot.