Cassanda and Jacob Maurice have broken down the true cost of feeding their ten children in Utah.
The couple, parents to Steven, 17, Christopher, 15, identical twins William and Ryan, 14, fraternal twins Max and Spencer, 12, Thomas, 10, Henry, 9, Lily, 8, and Peter, 7, said that their first grocery run each week rings in at roughly $300. Jacob, 47, a mechanical engineer who works in consumer product design, explained that the number climbs fast once midweek extras get added.
“It’s probably more like $500,” he said. “The first shopping she does is $300, but then we go and get other things. I think I budget like $1,000 a week for food and gas.”
That weekly rhythm covers a household packed into a four-bedroom home: Cassanda and Jacob in one room, eight kids split across two more, and the remaining two children in the fourth. Cassanda, a stay-at-home mother, manages the children’s schedules full-time.
The Maurices deliberately compressed their family timeline. Cassanda said she aimed to have all ten kids within a single decade, mirroring her own upbringing.
“Honestly, seeing them interact with each other, playing with each other and hanging out,” she said, describing the best part of their oversized household. “I really wanted to have all of the kids within 10 years because that’s how my family was and my oldest brother and my youngest brother seemed to get along pretty well.”
The noise level can spike. Jacob has been known to pop in earplugs when the chaos peaks, though both parents insist they would not trade their life.
Holiday spending follows the same restrained philosophy. The couple learned years ago that piling presents under the tree backfired emotionally.
“A number of years ago, we realized when we tried to give the kids a bunch of presents, they were just more sad,” Jacob said.
Cassanda added: “It was just a lot and overwhelming because there was so much going on. We’ve scaled back to everybody gets three presents.”
That scaled-back approach frees up money for annual vacations. The family funds those trips partly through TikTok, where they have built a following of more than 600,000 by sharing glimpses of their daily routines.
The Maurices’ grocery math offers a window into how large families navigate modern costs. Their $500 food total sits within a broader $1,000 weekly outlay that also covers gas, a figure that underscores how quickly basics multiply across a dozen-person household. The couple’s strategy of capping gifts and monetizing their platform has let them preserve experiences over possessions.