Nadya Suleman, aka Octomom, tries to budget as much as she can while grocery shopping for her 14 kids.
Suleman says that she spends between $4,000 and $5,000 a month on groceries and that she can easily spend $10,000 a month if she buys extra things at the store.
In her new docuseries, “Confessions of Octomom,” a clip showed her grocery bill totaling $366.94.
“I spend that maybe every other day,” she explained in a new interview with Us Weekly. “So it’s still $4,000 or $5,000 a month on groceries on average. And now, if we went above and beyond and we got extras and extra food, we could easily be $10,000 a month. Because of the budgeting, it’s about half.”
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“We find a lot of things on sale. I budget really well, and we all eat very, very, healthfully. I focus mainly on what matters — the plant-based whole foods, the fruits and vegetables,” Suleman said.
She explained she tries to avoid buying meat, dairy or eggs.
“So it’s still $4,000 or $5,000 a month on groceries on average. And now, if we went above and beyond and we got extras and extra food, we could easily be $10,000 a month.”
Suleman rose to fame in 2009 after she became pregnant with her octuplets via in vitro fertilization (IVF). That same year, she gave birth to Noah, Maliyah, Isaiah, Nariyah, Jonah, Makai, Josiah and Jeremiah – making them the world’s first surviving octuplets.
She is also mom to six older children: Elijah, Amerah, Joshua, Aiden and fraternal twins Calyssa and Caleb.
Being a mom of 14, Suleman was shocked to learn how expensive it would be to feed all of them, and it has turned out to be her biggest financial struggle.
“It’s food, rent, bills and repeat. Food, rent, bills,” Suleman told the outlet. “They grow and then the food they need grows as well. In the beginning, I wasn’t spending a quarter of that. Now it’s more.”
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Suleman has previously been open about how she raises her children the “old school” way, as she told People magazine.
For the octuplets, Suleman instilled boundaries and was “able to implement both a combination of unconditional love, positive regard and structured discipline consequences.”
For instance, “They’re not allowed to date until they’re 18,” Suleman said.
Additionally, Suleman said there is “no social media” in her household.
“It’s toxic. I don’t even like going on it,” she said. “I only do it to share and I dread it. It’s like I can’t even imagine the kids these days. It’s so unhealthy. I don’t believe anyone should go on social media, or be allowed on until they’re 18 at least.”
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She wants to teach her children not to be “fixated” on themselves.
“It’s very different today,” she said. “I’m a little more old school in how I’m raising my kids to focus on others, try to value serving because then the byproduct of that is internal joy and happiness, rather than, no offense to other people and other kids these days, but they tend to be a little more, let’s just say self-absorbed and self-entitled. I’m raising my kids to be aware of that and try to deviate away from that.”
