A Scottish mum-of-12 has opened up about how she and her large brood cope with Christmas amid the cost of living crisis - managing to fork out nearly £2,500 on presents without breaking the bank.
The strain of inflated energy bills and the rising costs of food has impacted everyone across the UK, but spare a thought for the family-of-14 headed by Zoe Sullivan, 44, and Ben Sullivan, 47, who all live under one roof in a four-bedroom house on military quarters.
The Sullivans are one of Scotland's largest families.
The couple have two sets of twins: Charlotte and Isabelle, 14, and Leah and Erin, aged six, eldest daughter Elisabeth, 17, Olivia, 16, Noah, 13, Evangeline, 11, Tobias, 9, Agnes, 5, and Joseph, 4, and baby Florence at eight months old.
Christmas can often be a time of struggle for families, but Zoe revealed how she provides the presents for her 12 children by setting budget for each kid.
She told the Sun : "I start saving for presents as soon as the kids go back to school in August and anything I put away goes towards Christmas. Each of our kids is given a £200 budget to spend on what they like.
"We don’t give the children pocket money throughout the year so this is their chance to stock up on the things they want."
Zoe has already seen her energy bills double despite not having the heating on and finances will be a little tighter when Ben, who is a full-time engineer in the military, finishes his role and the family move out of their current home.
She shops at Tesco, Adli, Asda, Home Bargains and B&M to find deals, often in the evenings when items are discounted, and spends £320 a week on groceries, which works out at around £21 per person on food.
They hope to move into a larger property, although Zoe is confident current living arrangements are still viable as the 12 children have "only ever known sharing".
She added: "We’re in military housing at the moment so we have two bedrooms with four girls in each, another with the three boys and the baby is still in with us.
"But we are looking at moving as Ben has just finished his job in the military, but even in our new home I doubt our set-up will change.
"The kids have only ever known sharing, we spoke about if we got a bigger place whether anyone would want their own room and they all agreed that they’d want to carry on sharing. They said they’d feel lonely."
