Thrifty Tip Tuesday!

Thrifty Tip of the Week:

Cheap and Easy Breakfasts!

While I love the luxury of a packaged cereal for breakfast, especially during the summer, in order to save money on my ever increasing food bill with three always starving boys, I mostly (and I say mostly) make homemade breakfasts. They most often cost pennies to make and my boys just love the variety of options I give. And since I do love those packaged breakfast cereals, I will give some tips about the deals I have found on cereals a little further in the post. So here are some breakfast options for those of you that are desiring to cut some pennies out of your breakfast food budget.

1) Homemade muffins. I can't tell you how cheap muffins are. And here is another economical tip: Always, and I mean always make a double batch. Then you can have muffins for another quick breakfast. This is especially helpful for those who need to leave the house early for work or school. Muffins are easily transported, filling and nutritious if you make them with healthy ingredients, and delicious to boot! I always serve a batch fresh out of the oven, and the leftovers get packed up individually by two's in foil and put in the freezer. My hubby takes a package out of the freezer each morning and takes them to work for his mid-morning snack. I have a ton of go-to recipes for muffins. If you need any, email me or comment on this post! I have found that even extremely healthy muffins can be tolerated by small children if you put a crumb topping on them! A little brown sugar and cinnamon accomplisheth much. Believe me.

2) Homemade pancakes or waffles. Don't buy expensive pancake mixes! Don't!!!! They most often have artificial ingredients and preservatives, unless you buy the all-natural kind, which then costs twice, if not three times as much as homemade. If your family loves pancakes, just find a good recipe, make an enormous batch of the dry ingredients, and keep it in a Tupperware container for batches to come. Homemade pancakes only have like 6 ingredients anyways, so making a new batch each time always comes together in a jiffy. And they are super cheap to make. And who doesn't like pancakes? Try some variety, like chocolate chip, banana nut, or blueberry.

3) Oatmeal. And when I say oatmeal, I don't mean those little individual sugar-drenched packages. Sorry, I don't mean to burst anyone's bubble, but homemade oatmeal is so much healthier! Just take some oats and follow the instructions on the back. I usually stir in brown sugar, cinnamon, and chopped apples or frozen blueberries. Any toppings will work....just think of the endless possibilities! Cranberries, pecans, and brown sugar. Blueberries and some half and half.....YUM!!!! Trust me.

4) Breakfast burritos or sandwiches. If you know me personally, you know that I always make these on Sunday mornings and we eat them on the way to church, without fail. I usually just pre-cook some sausage or bacon and keep it in a ziploc in the freezer for future use. I grate or slice some cheddar cheese, scramble some eggs, and voila! I make them interesting by changing up the bread. Sometimes I use tortillas, sometimes I use homemade biscuits (made from a double batch when I served them with something else), or English muffins. On Sunday morning, all I have to do is scramble the eggs, assemble the sandwiches, individually wrap them in foil, and place them in the toaster oven (or regular oven) to keep warm until we are ready to walk out the door. These also freeze well. You can make a large batch of them, individually wrap them in foil, and freeze them. If you need to take one to go, just place it in the oven to thaw and warm (I would think 20 minutes or so), grab it, and go. And you have yourself a nice protein filled breakfast.

Footnote about cereal: Most of you probably have a Walmart in the area. Sorry if you don't. Walmart carries a line of all natural breakfast cereals called "Mom's Best". They have all-natural ingredients, and cost about $2 a box! Seriously. And they are really good. They have a frosted shredded wheat, one that tastes like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and one that is like Honey Bunches of Oats. Sometimes they have one that is like Lucky Charms, but I haven't seen that one in a while. I have a rule that I like to keep cereal at about $2 a box, and that is mostly impossible to find. And because my boys can put away a box in one sitting, it's not economical to buy them. However, I do like to keep a few of these Mom's Best cereals in the house for those crazy mornings. And at that price, it's really not too bad! OK, don't get me wrong, I do give in to the occasionally sugar cereal (mostly as a special treat for camping), but in general, cereal doesn't make it's way into my cart very often. Well, the boys sometimes try to sneak a box in, just to be funny. Haha.

So try these options and see if it saves you some money. Or keep eating donuts and McDonalds every morning, and enjoy watching your money go down the tubes, and your hips getting unusually large. Then you will have to buy new jeans, and that defeats the whole purpose of this post.