Is $27k and $74k enough to provide for a family?

It depends on where you live. And it depends on what your standards are.

27k/year is a little short for 4 kids. Even in less expensive areas. Of course it could still work if you have a mall house where two kids share a room. And if you buy cheap clothes. And have a small, low consumption car. And stuff like that. You won’t be able to afford a lot of electronics toys either.

With 38k per annum, you are quite comfortable in the less expensive areas but will be struggling in expensive/ high cost of living places.

You can make it work with $27K a year, buts its rather tight. Thats about what my dad made when there was still 4 kids in the house. We did have to take advantage of programs like WIC and Food Stamps a few years in there, free school lunches, and few other gov programs to help with basic health care for us kids. There wasn’t any extravagant Christmas’s or Birthdays. No name brand clothes. All clearance and sales. And my grandma helped some too with clothes for back to school and things like that.
My mom did the stay at home mom thing, and had to be VERY thrifty with the grocery shopping and cooked just about everything from scratch as cheaply as she could. We didn’t get to have a lot of exciting vacations, or really a lot of vacations at all.

So yes you can make $27K work with 4 kids but its not easy. I would recommend finding a higher income some how.

I wouldn’t consider $38K/year to be “well off” for a family of 4. When I was a musician I never expected to make much money but figured that I would live however I needed to in order to do what I love. If you feel that way about being a pastry chef than you don’t need our advice. As far as kids go, I wouldn’t consider it child abuse to raise kids on a low income job. I know families that are quite happy on very modest means. I also know families where both parents pull down 6 figure salaries but are miserable. Money is only one variable in the equation. When I didn’t make much money I learned there are things you can do without spending money like going to the library or the park and often museums have a certain day entrance is free. Since I had more time than money I cooked from scratch a lot so we could eat well without spending much; convenience food is many times more expensive than cooking from scratch. When I had a car I still walked or cycled as many places as I could to save money. With a little creativity you can get by.

Do you plan on being a single parent? Do you have family around to support you? Because raising 3-4 kids on your own with that sort of income is going to be a struggle. Do you have any idea how much day care costs?

Perhaps