Bonell family: Mum-of-16 reveals how she is handling the rising cost of living within large family

The mum from Australia’s largest family has revealed how she is handling the rising cost of living when grocery shopping for her husband and 16 children.

Jeni Bonell, 52, and her husband Ray, from Queensland, have a super-sized family consisting of 16 kids – nine sons and seven daughters aged between seven and 32.

At the moment, nine of Jeni’s children still live at home, meaning that Jeni has to be savvy when she goes to the supermarket in order to save money.

Recently, she showed off a typical weekly ‘basics shop’, which cost her a staggering $454.65, and Jeni revealed her tips and tricks for saving valuable dollars. 

Jeni Bonell, 52, and her husband Ray, from Queensland, have a super-sized family consisting of 16 kids – nine sons and seven daughters aged between seven and 32 (family pictured)

‘Today, we are going to get a few basics in Coles,’ Jeni said in a YouTube video.

‘You can definitely tell the rise in prices and the growing cost of living. These two trolleys cost me $454.65.’

Some of the ways by which Jeni makes her money stretch further is she bulks up foods like seasoned rice with plain rice when making a meal, she stockpiles items when they are on special and she bases her meals around what’s on sale.

‘For instance, I saw these Asian-style Teriyaki vegetable packs with quick sale stickers on them for $2.75 so I bought four of them,’ she said.  

‘I also saw roast chickens for $8.80 with quick markdown stickers, so I thought these two things could make the basis of one meal.’

Some of the ways by which Jeni makes money stretch further is she bases her meals around what’s on sale, for instance these Teriyaki vegetables and quick-sale chickens (pictured)

As well as this, Jeni bulk buys snacks for lunchboxes when she sees them on sale and keeps them in her store cupboard for a later date.

On this particular occasion, she bought four boxes of Shapes crackers for half price and some lunchbox snack packets at 30 per cent off. 

‘It’s all about being organised and having a plan and doing a budget,’ Jeni said on Instagram.

‘I love finding reduced stickers. I’ll prep, dice and strip these capsicums I found, and then bag and freeze them for when I need to cook with them.’ 

As well as this, Jeni bulk buys snacks for lunchboxes when she sees them on sale and keeps them in her store cupboard for a later date (trolley pictured)

The mum-of-16’s other shopping tips include involving her kids in her family’s budget so that they know that the money is not never-ending (pictured with her family)

She likes to make sure there is absolutely no food wastage by using a strict fridge and freezer system (school lunchboxes pictured)

The mum-of-16’s other shopping tips include involving her kids in her family’s budget so that they know that the money is not never-ending and making sure there is no food wastage.

She has an impressive freezer system where she freezes anything that is not immediately going to get eaten.

This also helps when the family can’t be bothered to cook and feel as though they want to splash out on takeaway.

Jeni keeps her freezers well-stocked so there is always a meal on hand and the family are never tempted to just reach for takeaway (meal pictured)

Previously, Jeni shared how she organises her five fridges and freezers.

‘We’ve got a large deep freeze, we’ve got two top-mount fridge freezers, and a large “pigeon pair” inside, which is a full fridge and a full freezer,’ she said.

‘All of them are pretty stocked, but they were all a bit of a mess, so I needed to clean them.’

In one of the fridge/freezers, Jeni said she keeps things like ice blocks and dessert foods, including six four-litre containers of ice cream and desserts ready to be de-frosted. 

She also has countless cartons of juice for her kids, 10 large packets of eggs and ham from Christmas that is still needing to be eaten.

How much does it cost to feed a family of 18? 

The ‘weekly shop’ usually comes in at about $450, but this doesn’t include mid-week top ups or take away meals.

In one of her mid-week shops, she picked up six bottles of 3L milk, three loaves of sliced bread and an array of fresh fruits and vegetables.

The haul included 2kg carrots, four punnets of strawberries, two punnets of blueberries, 1kg grapes, 400g of cherries, 600g of grape tomatoes, 4kg potatoes, two salad kits, a punnet of peaches and a bag of apricots.

‘When you just need milk, bread and some fruit and vegetables,’ Jeni wrote on Facebook, alongside a huge grocery haul of her ‘quick shop’.

Her grocery bill came to an estimate total of $132.67. 

A Friday night takeaway order  can set the family back over $131.

Recently they took home four large family bundle meals from Hungry Jacks.

This included eight beef flame-grilled Whoppers, eight cheeseburgers, 40 chicken nuggets, 16 fries and 16 soft drinks – and cost $131.80.  

‘We’ve got a large deep freeze, we’ve got two top-mount fridge freezers, and a large “pigeon pair” inside, which is a full fridge and a full freezer,’ she said (one of her shops pictured)

In another of the fridge/freezers, Jeni said she keeps pre-prepped chicken and beef meals. 

She manages this freezer by chopping up the meat as soon as she buys it from the supermarket and freezing the pieces in a marinade.

At present, Jeni said she has two red wine and garlic chickens, two satay chickens, two smoky barbecue chickens and two honey and garlic chickens – all of which just need to be thrown in a pan and cooked and enjoyed.

She also has countless containers of butter ready if the family ever run out.

‘It’s nice when the pre-prepped freezer is full,’ Jeni said, because it takes the pressure off with cooking time.

The mum-of-16 also keep five litres of milk on hand at any one point, along with endless packets of frozen vegetables.