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Join Telegram ChannelParents of families with multiple children have long known how to save, save, and stretch their meals and budgets—and now, a mother of eight in Michigan reveals she spends just $12,000 a year on food purchases while cooking and preparing dinner for her. adult children.
Heather Bell, 53, and her husband, Luke, 51, had been trying for a baby for eight years when they adopted their eldest son, David, 24, in 1999, as SWNS reported.
Wanting to help more children and hearing about success from others they knew, they tried foster care.
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They went on to adopt six more children and were also naturally able to conceive a son.
As the family grew over time, mom Heather Bell had to learn how to cook for everyone and feed them adequately.
Heather Bell, a mother of eight from Michigan, always makes dinner for her adult children. “I don’t mind cooking for my family – I don’t know how to cook small,” she said. (SWNS)
She said many of her children came to her with “eating issues or trauma.”
Some were accustomed to eating mostly fast food, as SWNS noted.
Today, with only four of her children living at home, she continues to cook for her family and spends about $1,000 a month on groceries, she said.
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She runs a poultry farm and masonry business in the Upper Peninsula, Michigan.
She told SWNS: “I know they're adults, but they're still my kids. They all come here for dinner. They're very, very close. I don't mind cooking for my family – I don't know not cook.
She added: “They all love coming here – they really enjoy it.”
Heather Bell has published her own cookbook featuring “big batch” home-cooked meals. It's called “Mama Bell's Big Home Kitchen.” (Amazon)
Heather Bell explained how their family grew: “In six years we adopted six children. It was bam bam bam. I came from a big family, but I never really thought about having a big family myself.”
When it came to her cooking, she said she “had to change the way I prepared things…When kids came into my house, I didn't want to set them up for failure.”
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She said that while they were “used to [foods] like fries and hot dogs,” then she “incorporated some vegetables.”
She added, “I make a tater tot casserole in a 17-inch pan.”
Originally spending between $500 and $700 a week on food, she cut back and now only shops once a month, as she told SWNS.
Heather Bell (front, center) with her husband, Luke, and their children. (SWNS)
She raises her own beef and eggs and preserves her food using techniques such as canning, saying she is now “more self-sufficient”.
Even though she has cut back on spending throughout the year, she doesn't hold back Thanksgiving and Christmas for her children, she said.
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She gives each of her children seven small gifts and one main gift, she said, spending an average of just over $600 on each.
She told SWNS: “I start my list early and on a notepad. I listen to my kids and take notes. I've been shopping for Christmas since July.”
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Bell just released her own cookbook, “Mama Bell's Big Family Cooking,” to help other big families cook in large quantities. 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 big families. Families like me are tired of quadrupling recipes.”
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The cookbook also talks a bit about the family, including the order in which her children came into the house and how she adapted her cooking as the family grew.