This right here.

If I didn't have kids I'm almost certain I would have stayed in a downward depression spiral resulting in my marriage ending and being in a series of shitty jobs interspersed with long periods of unemployment and would never have had the confidence to get the job I'm in now.

Even though we are living month to month and are currently under a debt management scheme due to the same trial and error you mentioned (getting there), we are in reasonably secure, reasonably paid jobs, are a long way from homelessness and our kids are very happy and confident little people who are deprived of nothing.

So, in our current situation if we didn't have kids we would be so much better off financially, but I very much doubt we would be in this situation at all.

If I did somehow gain happiness and confidence without kids, without a family for financial motivation I probably would have followed my dreams and gone to art school, so would still be living a life of disapointment and minimum wage hell.

Thank you.