Here’s How Much Natalie ‘Nadya’ Suleman Spends to Feed Her 14 Kids

Natalie “Nadya” Suleman has a system for when she shops for 14 kids at her neighborhood grocery store.

“We find a lot of things on sale. I budget really well, and we all eat very, very, healthfully,” Suleman, 49, exclusively shared with Us Weekly while promoting Lifetime’s docuseries Confessions of Octomom. “I focus mainly on what matters — the plant-based whole foods, the fruits and vegetables.”

While Suleman tries to avoid purchasing meat, dairy or eggs, a recent episode of Confessions of Octomom revealed her grocery bill at Gelson’s was $366.94.

“I spend that maybe every other day,” she revealed to Us. “So it’s still $4,000 or $5,000 a month on groceries on average. And now, if we went above and beyond and we got extras and extra food, we could easily be $10,000 a month. Because of the budgeting, it’s about half.”

Suleman rose to fame in 2009 after getting pregnant with octuplets via IVF. That same year, she welcomed Noah, Maliyah, Isaiah, Nariyah, Jonah, Makai, Josiah and Jeremiah. She is also mom to six older children: Elijah (born in 2001), Amerah (born in 2002), Joshua (born in 2003), Aiden (born in 2005) and fraternal twins Calyssa and Caleb (born in 2006).

When asked to share the biggest financial surprise in raising 14 kids, Suleman quicked called out the groceries.

“It’s food, rent, bills and repeat. Food, rent, bills,” she said with a laugh. “They grow and then the food they need grows as well. In the beginning, I wasn’t spending a quarter of that. Now it’s more.”

Confessions of Octomom provides an intimate look at Suleman’s life as her octuplets turn 16. Although she’s been out of the public eye for years, the new Lifetime series aims to provide a different perspective than what the world has been privy to before.

Like many kids, Suleman said her children have faced bullying as a result of growing up in the spotlight.

Through it all, the mom of 14 said she created a safe space where open, honest communication wasn’t just encouraged but required.

“There’s no topic that we don’t discuss, and I’ve been very transparent with all of my past,” she said. “There’s no surprises, and I’m very, very receptive to hearing everything. They’re very open and honest. And we have family meetings and we talk about anything they want to talk about.”

After years of headlines that she said didn’t tell the whole story about her family, Suleman is hopeful her journey into reality TV will provide a more accurate description of what really goes on in her house.

“I want [viewers to] not only to take away the truth of who we are as a family and how close-knit we are and how strong our relationships are and how protective we are one another, and that there’s nothing we won’t do for each other, but I want them to take away or glean out something from our family that they can apply to their own lives,” Suleman explained. “I want people to be able to learn something valuable that they can apply to themselves.”

Confessions of Octomom airs on Lifetime Mondays at 10 p.m. ET.