HEAVY LOAD
I’ve got 14 kids and I’m lucky I can afford it because we spend £2.5k a MONTH on food & go through 20 loo rolls a week
A MUM-OF-14 has revealed she spends £2,600 a month on the food shop - and does 18 loads of laundry every week.
Karen and Deon Derrico, from the US, have four sets of naturally conceived multiples, including quintuplets and triplets.
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Appearing in a preview for new TLC series Doubling Down with the Derricos, Karen admits they spend £2,678 ($3,500) a month "easy" at the supermarket.
Their huge shopping hauls include 20 rolls of toilet roll and 15 packets of waffles every week.
Having a big family certainly doesn't come cheap, and the Derricos spend a fortune to keep everyone well fed.
As they welcome TLC's cameras into their home, Karen, 40, reveals: "The amount of money that we spend on groceries, oh my gosh. $2,500 (£1,913) to $3,500 (£2,678), easy."
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"In a week we go through 15 boxes of waffles, 20 rolls of toilet paper," adds Deon, 49.
"Eighteen loads of clothes a week," Karen explains.
All of our children were naturally conceived. Not one round of IVF
Karen Derrico
Knowing they could provide for their family was an important part of the decision to have so many kids, the parents add.
"I am a stay-at-home mother and my phenomenal, handsome husband over here is a real estate investor (property investor)," Karen says.
";We chose to have a large family. We also chose to make sure we could provide for our large family."
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Karen is still pregnant with her youngest kids, the triplets, when filming kicks off.
The parents have multiples on both sides of the family, but Deon says: "We have the most multiples that anyone has ever heard of".
After their first daughter was born, Karen suffered two miscarriages, so was put on progesterone to sustain her next pregnancy.
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"All of our children were naturally conceived. Not one round of IVF," she explains.
Deon adds: "Having four sets of multiples back to back? It's like getting struck by lightning while getting struck by lightning.
"Many parents know with just one child, two children, it's a job. But when you have soon-to-be 14, it's a job."
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The couple admit they have their "good days and bad days", but say there's always enough love to go round.
The TLC series, which starts a week today, chronicles a year in their life.
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It begins when Karen is 24 weeks' pregnant with triplets and put on bed rest by her doctor, leaving Deon to look after their huge brood.
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As well as the triplets, the couple are parents to Darian, 13, who helps her mum with the chores; Erek, eight; twins Dallas and Denver, seven; and quintuplets Deniko, Dariz, Deonee, Daician and Daiten, five.
Yesterday we reported on a mum-of-19 with 14 grandchildren - who has five washing machines, three driers and still can’t believe she had more than two kids.