'I can't afford to feed my 12 children - I have to use coupons for food'

A single mum-of-12 said she's been forced to rely on food stamps due to the cost of living crisis - and "can't afford" to feed her family without them.

Veronica Merritt, 39, says she has to feed her kids macaroni, hot dogs and packet ramen - because now her yearly food bill totals $24k (£19,200).

She says she’s trolled on TikTok for “not being able to afford” her big family by people who say she shouldn’t have had kids in the first place.

But she does not regret them and said having babies feels and it's like her "superpower".

Veronica, a TikTok creator, from New York, US, said: “I never would’ve had kids if I’d waited until I was rich - I don't regret any of my kids.

“I’m trying to take care of my kids as best I can. This month I didn’t have any money, so had to spend $1,400 (£1,123) in food stamps.

“It’s impossible to feed 11 people on $1,400 - the prices of everything right now are tight.

“I used to feed a family of 12 for $500 (£401) a month but now you need $2,000 (£1,605) to $3,000 (£2,400) a month to feed this many people ramen.”

Veronica had her first baby Victoria, 24, in March 2000, when she was aged 14, at Crouse hospital in Syracuse, NY.

The first 10 kids were with Veronica's first husband, she then went on to marry an old friend and had two more kids.

Currently, her brood consists of Victoria, 24, a mum-of-one, Andrew, 19, Adam, 17, Mara, 16, Dash, 14, Darla, 13, Marvelous, 11, Martalya, nine, Amelia, seven, Delilah, five, Donovan, four and Modi, two.

She says the family receive help from the government in the form of $1,400 in food stamps each month.

"We get $1,400 in food stamps which is actually not enough at all, food is so expensive," she said.

"I've got help with food stamps on and off over the years."

Veronica said she wanted more kids but has to get hysterectomy because of a fibroid, on May 2.

"Six boys and six girls is pretty perfect, especially because I colour code and have a boy and girl for every colour," she said.

"It's oddly perfect how well it worked out.

"If I did want to have more, I'd have to be rich and hire a surrogate.

“I was 14 when I had my first, I was really young, and I didn’t really understand how reproduction worked.

“I thought you had to be 16 to get pregnant.

"I thought, ‘it won’t happen to me’, but it did, pretty much as soon as I was sexually active.

“I don't think of kids as accidents. They’re my little surprises."

Veronica added: "I really like growing my family. I like having babies.

"I thought 'I'm just going to see what nature decides and see what happens, you know?' And so I just kept getting pregnant."

She said the cost of toys and electronics vary but Christmas alone costs her $7k (£5,619).

Veronica bought her nine-bedroom house on the East Coast of New York for $20,000 (£16,055).

She says it needs a lot of repairs that require a lot of money that the family doesn’t have right now.

But she intends to raise the money by making money on TikTok and selling paintings.

She added: "Housing is about $13k (£10,435) but that's just taxes and utilities - we have no mortgage or rent.

"School supplies cost me about $4k and trips to visit family cost a few thousand dollars.

"I used to work at Chuck E Cheese a few years and worked in McDonalds when I was a teenager.

"My TikTok usually makes $1,200 (£963) - $7,000 a month through the creator fund but I haven't been posting much so last month I only made $300 (£241).

"This month I only made $70 (£56) - so I really need to post more."

Veronica is a single mum and she raises them alone.

She says it’s incredibly hard - but wouldn’t change it for the world.

“I wish I would have chosen better partners so that I wasn't a single mum right now. But I love having babies. I think that having a baby is like the greatest, most precious and wonderful thing ever.

"We're living on ramen, when we used to be able to buy anything. I used to be able to go to the grocery store and get whatever we wanted and not have to worry about it."

But Veronica says her family’s lifestyle attracts a lot of comments from trolls - who say she can’t afford to raise them.

“People comment on my TikToks that if you’re not perfect you shouldn’t have kids at all,” she said. “I’m just trying to take care of the kids as best I can.

“I’m just very honest about things online.

“I don’t only show the best meals - I’ll show them eating hot dogs and macaroni and cheese.

“I don’t make sure everything is perfect and clean. Our house gets messy.”

Veronica says she loves each of her kids equally - and she refuses to pick favourites.

She said: “People think I can’t love all the kids, which is silly because that’s like saying you can’t love 10 of your friends.

“Sure, there might be days where I spend more time with one than the other.

“I started colour coding by accident because my daughter (Victoria) was obsessed with a lot of pink.”

Mara will wear yellow, while Darla loves purple and Dash prefers to wear orange.

"It's almost like their colours shaped their personalities."

Breakdown of Veronica's costs:

• Food - $24k
• Christmas presents - $7k
• Birthdays - $10k
• Housing costs - $13k

Total: $54k (£43,000) annually