Cheap Breakfast Ideas for Nutritious, Inexpensive Meals

In this tough economy everyone is looking for ways to make ends meet. One area where you don’t want to skimp is with breakfast. This is arguably the most important meal of the day.

There are ways, however, that you can enjoy a quick nutritious breakfast while saving money at the same time.

Ditch the cold cereal, go with old time favorites.

People love the taste of old time favorites like oatmeal, grits, and cream of wheat. Yet we often forget how quick and cheap these meals are to make, even for people on the run.

Oatmeal, for instance, takes only a few minutes to prepare. Pour oatmeal into a cup, add milk / water, and microwave for 3 minutes.

Throw in some butter, brown sugar, banana slices, raisins, or other fruit and you have a delicious meal at a fraction of the cost.

In fact, at 11.6 cents per serving oatmeal is one of the cheapest breakfast foods around.

Try juice concentrates.

Remember every time you pay for that carton of orange juice, you’re actually paying in part for the shipping and storage of the water that makes up the vast majority of any juice.

You save 30-40% simply by buying frozen juice concentrates in the freezer section of your local store and adding your own water at home.

If you don’t like using frozen juice concentrates, you can easily cut your morning juice costs by 10% simply by diluting your juice with a small amount of water.

Check out the bakery outlets.

We all love fresh hot bagels, toast, and English muffins with our breakfast. With rising agricultural prices, however, these items can become quite expensive. Instead of shopping at the supermarket, make your way to a bakery outlet where you can purchase bread, bagels, and other baked goods at a 50% to 75% discount off of supermarket prices. The food is fresh and you get a great deal.

Make your pancakes ahead of time.

Pancakes provide a delicious, cheap breakfast treat – and deep discount grocery stores like Aldi supermarkets carry great tasting syrup at a fraction of the price of conventional supermarkets.

The only problem with pancakes is that they take more time to cook than you may have available in the morning.

Savvy pancake lovers overcome this by cooking batches of pancakes ahead of time and then freezing individual servings in the freezer. When they need a quick breakfast meal they simple take their pancakes out of the freezer and heat them in the microwave or toaster.

Some people save even more money by making their own pancake mix from scratch using flour, instant dried milk, and baking powder. Ursula Anderson at eHow has a great pancake recipe. Prancer at Group Recipes also has a great recipe for delicious pancake mixes.

Save on cereal, watch out for store super sales.

Perhaps your kids are just sticklers for Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops, or Honey Combs. At $4 or more a box, these cereals can put a pinch in your shopping budget. Many parents wait for a sale before buying kids their favorite cereal.

The key is not to wait for any old sale, but to wait and stock up at super sales – sales at which the cereal is on sale for 50% off or more. Buy 1 get 1 free sales are a typical example. Why save 75 cents or a dollar a box when you can purchase these items at a more dramatic discount?

Typically in a normal sales cycle these super sales occur every six to eight weeks. Its at this point you should stockpile and purchase several boxes of cereal at the special price (enough boxes to last you until the next super sale).

Find a source of inexpensive eggs to add spice to your breakfast.

Eggs are a great breakfast food – either scrambled, boiled, or as the a main ingredient in a breakfast burrito or omelette – eggs hit the spot.

Yet with a carton of eggs easily costing $2.50 or more they can become quite expensive.

Lower your breakfast costs by simply knowing where to purchase your eggs. Aldi supermarkets offer Grade A large eggs for only 98 cents a carton. In a Chicago area supermarket the cheapest store brand carton of eggs will run you nearly $2 – twice as much!

Brew your own coffee.

Consider this – spending just $4 a morning for coffee at Starbucks or another coffee shop will cost you $1040 over the course of a year. Save money simply by brewing your own coffee at home. Coffee makers, French presses, and expresso machines can be purchased for $60 to $400, still saving you money compared to the morning stop at your local coffee shop.

The National Coffee Association has a great primer for making restaurant quality coffee at home.

Breakfast doesn’t have to be expensive. You can eat well for less. Do you have tips for cheap breakfast ideas?  Let us know. Leave a comment below.

Update: This article has been included in a recent edition of the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights hosted by the I Pick Up Pennies financial blog.