Most parents want to give their kids the world, but many of us have to do it on ahem normal salaries — which makes “the world” considerably smaller. For the Nelsons, known as the “Not Enough Nelsons” on social media, the sky’s the limit when it comes to their whopping 16 kids. But if you’re already wondering how in the world such a big family is able to spend big bucks on their massive house and kids, mom Tiffany Nelson recently shared that they earned every penny of it.
“We were dirt poor … I mean dirt poor,” the mom shared.
The mom explained all in a YouTube video from March 2022.
When Tiffany Nelson and her husband, Benji, first got married, they each had six jobs, she explained in the footage. The two married while Benji was in college — meaning that his student status probably wasn’t bringing in the dough.
“I worked in an ice cream shop and I was also a distributor of newspapers — in the morning, Benji and I would go deliver newspaper bundles to all of the paperboys,” she said of their humble beginnings.
They also sold salt to local grocery stores so they could apply it to roads when it would snow.
And if you’re imagining moonlight dinners or dancing until the sunrise during those early years of marriage, you’d be dead wrong.
“For date night, we used to collect cans,” Tiffany said. The mom explained that they would collect cans three nights a week, every week, and even made about $950 one year from collecting cans.
By the time Benji graduated from school, the two had saved more than $20,000.
It was enough encouragement to convince the pair to buy a house together – and flip it. Two years later they sold the house for $28,000 to $30,000 more than they’d paid for it.
Then they did it again with their next house and were able to bring in a $90,000 profit.
“Then we had a huge nest egg,” Tiffany recalled.
Using Tiffany’s talent for drawing house plans, the 'Not Enough Nelsons' couple took their nest egg and built their first house.
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But the couple hit a snag during the 2008 recession and ended up bankrupt.
At this point the parents had 10 children, some biological, some adopted. So you can imagine how absolutely terrifying this must’ve been.
“We lost pretty much everything that we had built and worked so hard for over 10 years time,” she said. “But you know what? Live and learn.”
Losing everything eventually caused the parents to stop their workaholic ways and spend more time with their kids.
In hindsight, the mom says she “wouldn’t even change” what happened. The two managed to rebuild their development business and even supplemented their income with Tiffany’s day care business, which she said was very successful.
Now the parents have 16 children and a booming YouTube channel which has more than 1.3 million subscribers. The kids range in age from 4 to 25 years old, and even though life has clearly thrown the parents some challenges, they’re happy with the journey their family has taken.
“We never thought that we would end up with 16 kids — but we love them all,” she said.
