Brad and Angelina spend $10 million on their kids

This post comes from Caroline Howard at partner site Forbes.com.

By anyone's measure (except for Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar), it is no small feat, raising six children. But somehow, with the help of an army of tutors, nannies, chefs and private transportation (the kind with tinted windows or that fly), Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are a well-documented success story.

Still, you have to wonder how much it really costs. The answer, according to Bonnie Fuller's HollyBaby, who credits In Touch magazine, is an awesome figure: "They spend about $10 million a year on the kids."  

But for some perspective, in April, Jolie signed a $10 million contract with Louis Vuitton. Following past Vuitton beauties such as Madonna and Jennifer Lopez, the 35-year-old mom will appear in a series of print ads this summer, photographed by the brilliant Annie Leibovitz.

• How do your finances stack up?

Jolie landed at No. 18 on the 2010 Forbes Celebrity 100 Power List, with a salary of $20 million and 38 magazine covers. Pitt followed at No. 30, also banking $20 million.

Let's do the math and compare the Jolie-Pitts to an average U.S. household. The celebrity couple earned $40 million last year and allegedly spent 25% on "child-rearing." That includes food, transportation, health care, children’s clothing, child care and education and miscellaneous goods and services.

In 2009 figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, on average, two-parent, two-child households in the lowest income group (less than $56,600) spent 25% of their before-tax income on kids; those in the middle-income group (up to $98,000) spent 16%; and those in the highest group (above $98,000), 12%.

Jolie and Pitt are not, relatively speaking, spending an outsize amount on their children. They supposedly pay out the same as what 65% of Americans would. (See, they are Just Like Us!) And two times what the highest income bracket in the U.S. drops -– on three times as many kids. Post continues after video.

If you consider that there are six minds to educate, six mouths to feed, six bodies to clothe and move around the globe, etc., let's give Brangelina some credit. In an over-the-top, annoying kind of way, of course.

To understand exactly how $10 million fits into the lives of Maddox, 9; Pax, 7; Zahara, 6; Shiloh, 4; and twins Vivienne and Knox, 2; refer to this annual budget, as shared by HollyBaby:

• $5 million on private jets. Brad and Angelina spend about $5 million on private jets, not including the cost of first-class tickets, so that they can take their family with them as they travel.
• $1 million-plus on private tutors. "They spend more than a million on private tutors who travel around the world with them," says the source. That doesn’t include the tuition of the private schools.
• $900,000 on nannies for each of their children. The nannies are with their kids all of the time.
• $96,000 for clothes. "They donate millions a year to charity, so that’s how they justify spending so much on their kids," says the source.
• $36,000 grocery bill. They dish out about $3,000 per month on groceries. Eating out or ordering from in-room dining while at hotels doesn't figure in to this number.
• Birthday parties. Brad and Angie spent $7,000 to charter a private boat for Paxs seventh birthday. They have also rented out a zoo for an event.
• Hotel bills. "They once spent $500,000 for one stay at the Waldorf," notes the source.
• Private cars. At $600 a day, Brad and Angelina regularly hire private SUVs to dive their kids around for the day.

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