Sugar Bomb in a Bowl? Not For Me!

What is the most important part of our day?  Breakfast!  Let's learn to start our day out frugal and healthy.  One thing that magically happened when we started living frugal was we naturally started eating healthier.  This is very obvious by our daily breakfast menu.  Here are my favorite frugal breakfast ideas:

As I mentioned before, rule number one in cutting down your grocery budget is to get rid of all processed foods.  For breakfast, this means any cereal, oatmeal packets, shakes, egg beaters, or frozen waffles.  Anyone who is successful in living frugal will tell you that processed foods are budget killers (unless you have an amazing coupon).

There are so many options that are made from scratch and healthy.  I am not a morning person.  I can barely make my coffee, let alone want to cook a big meal.  So here are some of the staple breakfasts of our household:

1. Good ol' fashioned oatmeal. Yeah, I mean the one in the cardboard canister.  I buy the cheapest brand on the shelf.  This month, that meant Quaker because it was on sale!  Essentially, they are all the same.  An oat is an oat, so don't pay a lot for oats with nicer brand names.  I can pop it in the microwave, make it on the stove, or in the crockpot the night before.  Some yummy things to add are cinnamon, sliced apples, a little sugar, blueberries, raisins, brown sugar, or honey...the list is endless.  Don't forget, oatmeal is a whole grain so it's starting your day off right!
2. Peanut butter toast. Store brand 100% whole wheat bread and the cheapest peanut butter you can find.  This is my son's favorite breakfast.  I love it too, because it is one of the easiest.
3. Microwave omelet. Crack a couple eggs in a microwave safe cup, add a splash of milk, scramble them up, and add whatever you like in an omelet.  My favorite is spinach (frozen or fresh), but you can also do tomato, onion, cheese and more.  Pop it in the microwave for one minute.  No pans needed.  Yeah, it's that easy.
4. Homemade pancakes from the freezer. Once a month, I whip up a double or triple batch of pancakes from scratch.  I freeze them individually or two together.  Just pull them out of the freezer and pop them in the toaster like you would an Eggo.
5. Homemade granola cereal. Again, once a month, I make a batch of homemade granola cereal and put it in a Rubbermaid container in the pantry.  Just oatmeal, syrup, cinnamon, butter, and raisins.  It takes me 10 minutes to cook (I'll post the recipe soon!).

There you go.  Five fast and easy recipes that are super cheap and healthy.  I find that most people eat the same thing for breakfast everyday.  I get bored so I like variety.  I feel these five items give us great variety and convenience.  Of course, I have my weekend breakfasts that take a little more time like french toast, pastries, breads, or muffins.  (Breads and muffins actually make good mid-week breakfasts if prepared ahead of time.)

You will start to see that 90% of cutting down your grocery costs is just finding recipes you like with simple ingredients.  I will certainly share more of my favorites!