17 Kids and Debt Free!

TODAY staff | Jim Bob and Michelle reveal secrets to managing more and more with less.  Readers have a lot of questions about how Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar manage to raise their 17 kids without going broke. Here, the busy couple fields questions about living debt-free, preparing for grandkids and more (including a crowd-pleasing recipe!).

Q: [How have you] made ends meet (feeding, clothing, diapering, entertaining, etc.) while still being debt-free? Also, how do [you] pay for everything without credit, and still have money in the bank every month? — Marni, Kings Mountain, N.C.

Jim Bob: How do [other] people pay interest for the debt on top of making ends meet? What we’ve done is something that a lot of people don’t want to do. It’s not keeping up with the Joneses. We’ve always driven older vehicles; we’ve never bought a new vehicle.

In the past, Michelle’s gone to garage sales and bought shoes for a dollar. We probably spend less on clothing than what a family of four would spend. We spend a lot of money on food — $3,000 a month on food and diapers and that type of stuff.

We saved up and paid cash for our second house 18 years ago, then spent a year remodeling to get it fixed up to be livable. But then we didn’t have house payments. We don’t have any debt, so it makes it easier to live.

Michelle: We went to a financial freedom seminar when we were young. It was about getting out and staying out of debt. It really is freedom when>>>>Read the Full Article