Save money on breakfast: Make it yourself
Filed under: Food, Saving, Simplification
I grew up in a "traditional" family with the sort of mom who got up early to make us a big breakfast. I remember eggs, pancakes, biscuits, sausages, toast, and always a pitcher of freshly-mixed juice. We were also firmly on the underside of the poverty line (so it was margarine on our toast and generic brand 'pancake syrup' on our flapjacks).When I got to be a parent, I stuck to my grown-up spendthrift ways for quite a while, buying cold cereal, scones, bagels and the like, rarely making a big delicious breakfast of biscuits or pancakes or muffins but far more often just picking it up from the coffee shop.
And then one day -- maybe it was the fact that I stopped eating processed foods and cut out white sugar, or maybe it was just that our grocery budget was through the roof -- I made a commitment to start making breakfast, just like my mama before me.
I learned the ways of granola, I got fast with morning pancakes, I found a muffin recipe I could throw together in 25 minutes start-to-oven fresh. But mostly we just eat oatmeal. It's organic and steel cut and we still save on breakfast from those WOW expensive cold cereals and $2.50 a pop breakfast pastries. I soak it the night before so it cooks up in a flash. When I have a holiday, I make a huge batch of waffles and put a bunch in the freezer for those mornings that aren't so rise-and-shiney.
And this was my AH-HA! moment: I reconnected with the real reason my mom got up to make us breakfast every day. It wasn't that she was such a fantastic, early-rising farm girl of a mother (though of course, she was). It was that she couldn't afford to buy us Corn Flakes and Pop Tarts every morning. Making pancakes is cheap.
Even if you're kitchen-challenged, you can make granola (it's just mixing and baking), French toast (dip bread in eggs; fry) and oatmeal (boil water; add oats; reduce heat). Even with the lux choices I make -- organic grains, real organic maple syrup, organic super-rich butter -- I'm spending about $2 or $3 for most breakfasts for my family of five, compared to three or four times that cost if I were to buy packaged breakfast food (or worse, Starbucks, which always sets us back close to $20).
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-15-2008 @ 10:16AM
Wendy Buckley said...
I would love to see some recipes!
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7-15-2008 @ 12:03PM
Carolscm said...
Growing up, we rarely if ever had sugar cereal, Poptarts, fzn pancakes, etc. I eat as I did then: eggs once a week on the weekends. One weekend a month, add bacon, another, add sausage. During the workweek: cold cereal for under $2/box (and it's the plain, healthy stuff: puffed wheat, shredded wheat, rice krispies, cheerios etc), oatmeal from canister unless I can get the pkts for $1.50/box or less, cook your own never pktsfarina, homemade bread toasted with hm cinnamon-sugar/p butter/hm jams, qts of vanilla lowfat yogurt w/ seasonal fruit and $2 or less/box of granola. One day/weekend, I make HM waffles/pancakes/Fr toast (use dry milk in these for savings). I intentionally make extra for the upcoming work week. I also bake muffins/quick breads/coffee cakes for the upcoming work week. Bisquick Impossible pies-make "mini quiche" in muffin pans-great way to use up bits of this/that. Very totable-teens esp. like these.
OJ-one glass per person is served. If it gets over $3/ 1/2 gallon, then I cut it 50-50 with canned pineapple juice or bottled ruby red grapefruit juice. Some like tomato juice/v8 as an alternative. HM cocoa in winter for the kids, otherwise milk is available. Coffee for adults/teens.
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8-01-2008 @ 9:14PM
cashmere said...
I make my breakfast every day. - and love it.
while I check my e-mails, I drink a pint of plain water.
My Fruit Salad:
My self mixed muesli is kept in a jar in the fridge and contains a mix of oatmeal, oat or wheat bran, wheat germ and crushed flax seed and green pumpkin seeds. (it last for about a month)
My fruit salad consists of fresh grated carrots, green apples, freshly squeezed lemon juice, a few dried cranberries and a fresh banana. .
Orange juice poured onto to it gives it a wonderful taste. (it lasts three days)
I only buy the largest yogurt container (32oz) - its economical that way. the flavors I buy are "plain" and "vanilla". Generally I make a mix of the two (less sugar). (I grab the ones on sale)
I fill my bowl with the muesli add 5 table spoons of my yogourt mix, add 2 dried prunes ( out of my large 20oz jar )and top it with two walnuts.
one cup of coffee (no sugar) and I am set for the next 4 1/2 hours feeling happy and content without feeling hungry.
I drink more water after breakfast so that the muesli mix can expand in my stomach.
Bon appetit - it's very healthy and saves lots of $$$
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