With all the children living at home, the Kraus family went through six boxes of cereal a week. Far left, Judith, 16; front row, Matthew, 12; Kathleen and Ken Kraus; Thomas, 15; Samuel, 20. Second row, Justin, 28; Sarah, 23; Meredith, 10; Ellen, 25. Back row, David, 22; Stephen, 18. by Cathy Horton
photo by Brent Fleury

With her serene gray eyes, ready smile and tucked-in appearance, Kathleen Kraus looks like anything but a harried mother of ten. Her children range in age from 10 to 28 and five still live at home, which means the Kraus house in Hendersonville is a beehive of activity. Between her own job, helping with schoolwork and school functions, church activities, grocery shopping, cooking and chores, Kathleen Kraus’s schedule gives new meaning to the word multitasking.

Kathleen, 51, and her husband Ken, 49, married in 1982. They originally thought they would stop at five children, but after the fifth, Kathleen saw no reason to stop. “Having my children is the job that I was put here to do,” Kathleen says. Ken is a quality engineer at the ceramics manufacturer Selee Corporation in Hendersonville. When her children were young, Kathleen held a variety of jobs, but none that took her far from home. She had sewing jobs and babysitting gigs, and she once sold items on eBay for a local auction company. But now with Meredith, her youngest, in fourth grade, Kathleen works full time at the Henderson County Department of Social Services. “When you start a family, it’s like starting a business,” she says. “With each additional member, you grow and change. The family that can adapt, just like a business, is the one that survives.”

With a full house, the Kraus family went through four gallons of milk a week, five to six boxes of cereal and three loaves of bread. Now they’re down to just two gallons of milk a week, but the family can easily plow through a dozen eggs in one sitting. Until a few years ago, Kathleen based her weekly food menus around grocery sales. Using the newspaper as a guide, she clipped coupons and made the rounds to every store with sale items while her mother-in-law looked after the children. Now with teenagers to help at the grocery store, they divide and conquer, each fetching a few items (after getting precise descriptions of brands and quantities from their mother).

Believe it or not, she cooks many meals from scratch. Boxed dinners and mixes seemed like time savers at first, but Kathleen found that the food quality suffered, and besides, boxed mixes usually only serve from two to four people—she would need three boxes in order to have enough. So the Kraus kids get macaroni with homemade cheese sauce, smoked sausage, homemade biscuits and applesauce (their favorite meal of all time). They also like chicken-broccoli casserole served with rice and cranberry sauce. “It’s like a Thanksgiving dinner in one dish,” she says.

Since Kathleen has always been frugal, surviving a recession does not seem like such a strain. Besides, she and her husband have never been overly materialistic, teaching their children that possessions matter little. “Our quality of life doesn’t come from things, but from our love and closeness to one another,” she says.
Her tips for thrifty, happy living? Simple. First, plan a menu and grocery list each week. It just makes things easier. You can get everything you need in one trip to the store, and there’s no need to think twice about what’s for dinner. “If it saves time, it probably saves money,” she says. Skip expensive trips to the salon by making haircuts a family affair. Before shopping, go to coupon websites. They have printable coupons and links to sites with savings. And most important of all, find a creative outlet. Kathleen’s is Wednesday night choir practice at church. She loves being part of a group that makes such beautiful music. Ken plays trombone for Hendersonville groups like the Mardi Gras Blues Band, Legacy and Buddy K. “It keeps him sane,” she says.