In spite of my sometimes best intentions not getting all the way to fruition, I really do try to make a home made breakfast for my family. Not only is it a nutritious practice, but it is also very frugal. Pound for pound, those easy already prepared breakfasts are some of the most expensive meals around. Cereal can cost $4 for a box that lasts one or two days at the most. And frozen breakfast meals are even worse.
Lately, with our hectic schedule, we have been relying too much on those convenience breakfast foods, such as instant oatmeal, cereal, and on one desperate day, discounted pop-tarts. Ack!
So many times in our meal-planning, we forget to include breakfast. This is a big mistake, since our budgets can benefit from planning in this area as well. Taking advantage of sales and stocking up on basics can make it easy to create good, hearty, frugal breakfast.
For example, we took a trip to Lancaster this past Saturday, and we were able to find bananas at 29 cents a pound. We also stocked up on raw sugar, flour, organic apples and eggs. I already have a good stock of cornmeal, oats and shredded cheese, as well as other fruits such as oranges and raisins. This gives me plenty of choices for a breakfast plan. We generally will drink milk or water in the morning.
This is my breakfast plan for the week.
Monday: Baked oatmeal with raisins
Tuesday: Corn muffins and orange slices
Wednesday: Scrambled eggs with cheese and apples slices
Thursday: Banana wheat pancakes with butter and syrup
Friday: Raisin bran muffins
Saturday: Egg “McMuffins” and apple slices with cinnamon
Sunday: Chocolate waffles, turkey bacon and banana slices
As you can see, we don’t incorporate a lot of meat into breakfast as a general rule, although we always include plenty of fruit. Protein comes in the form of eggs, cheese and milk, the most expensive parts of the plan. Turkey bacon is a special treat for Sunday.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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