Rhy, I think you do qualify hun.
Anna, it's not as bad as he thinks it will be. We are only on a middle income (anything between 70 - 90k depending on the weather - the joys of farming
) and we can afford for the three older kids to do Little athletics, plus the two at school do an after school activities program that is free. It's not costing us anymore to have the car we have than what it would have cost to buy a new commodore really. It really does come down to what you make of it. If you only have 3 kids, you are probably still spending as much as you would if you had 4 anyway. I heard a financial expert on Oprah once say that no matter how much you earn you will still spend the same % of your income each week - so even with your 3 child family you probably still spend as much as my 4 child family only with more children you learn how to make your $$ go further kwim?
Maz in the next 5-6 years we are looking at adding onto our house as well because we are just outgrowing it at a rapid rate. We've only got 3 bedrooms and ideally we'd like 4 - the girls can still share but we would give the boys their own room to accomodate the age gap between them. When DS1 is 16, he's not going to want his 10yo brother cramping his style
LOL. Because of the way our house is we are snookered as to building on, but a work mate of
DH's just brought a small transportable home and placed it next to the existing house and joined them with a breeze-way so we will probably do that and add on the extra bedroom and family room.
ETA - just to add now that Lulus posted with a bit more info. Auskick was $50 per year for us. They don't need any other equipment for it other than a pair of joggers - they don't really need footy boots and each club supplies jumpers etc. We choose little A's because it's something the whole family can do because they start at Tiny Tots and you get a sibling discount. You don't *have* to buy them the full 'uniform' (for us it is black shorts/bike pants and a red singlet) unless you want them to compete in competitions against other clubs and I know our Little A's resells donated singlets for about half price - same with spikes (proper running shoes). School uniforms get passed from one child to another till they are worn out - especially jumpers and jackets. Having both boys and girls I can't hand down their shorts& skorts, but I can get two years out of their school shirts which saves a lot of money. Again there is usually a co-op that sells second hand uniforms.
For sure it does get tough at times, but with careful planning it is very manageable.