Breakfast :(

joedenise

JIL said:

Theres a blog, thrifty Lesley. She has some great ideas for breakfast, she has some great ideas for other meals as well.
I'm a fan of Aldi cereal. Not for breakfast though, I have an occasional bowl if I'm peckish before bed.

Lesley is also in the process of updating Cheap Family Meals menu plans.  There are lots of good cheap ideas on that as well as on the rest of her blog.

richardw

Own brand mini wheat shreds at Aldi or Lidl are good value. Own brand squeezy honey is cheap as well. If you have time, cracked eggs with bacon and potatoes is fantastic.
I like a croque madame, you don’t have to make it with french ham and cheese, mustard and marmite can add plenty of flavour.

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

Another vote for porridge. We normally make ours with half water and half milk. Two of our favourites would be frozen blueberries thrown in while cooking and topped with slices of banana and carrot cake porridge. Grate a large carrot in, add cinnamon and raisins. Top with honey and some chopped pecans if you are feeling extra indulgent. 

Bluegreen143

I’ve got a 4 and 1yo. 

We have own brand cereal from Lidl - their version of Weetabix mainly or I keep in rice crispies or Cheerios as a change. 

I also serve homemade bread with peanut butter and either mashed banana or jam on top - my kids love this. I toast if stale but just serve as bread if it’s fresh.

My kids love porridge or more usually overnight oats (for ease). I put the fruit in and whizz up with a hand blender so it all gets incorporated in & flavours the oats and is a nicer texture for little ones. 

They really like fruity or chocolate milkshakes (healthier than it sounds, it’s just milk, banana - ideally 1/2 of it frozen - cocoa powder, peanut butter and oats! Or I swap the cocoa out & half the banana and put in frozen berries instead) but that’s probably more expensive than cereal, I serve these with some buttered toast on the side and they like to dip it 😂

When I make pancakes I make a batch to freeze then it’s an easy weekday breakfast with fruit and honey/syrup/jam.

We keep chickens so scrambled egg & HM bread or French toast is a good cheap weekend breakfast. 

MrsStepford

Cereal is ultra-processed rubbish. They take all the natural goodness out, that's why they fortify them with chemical vitamins. What about eggs ? Boiled (egg boiler ?), fried or poached on toast, omelettes, egg muffins with left over veg, bacon etc
https://heronfoods.com/maggie-makes/recipe-details/lite-bites/bacon-n-egg-muffin-cups

thriftwizard

Agreeing that dropping boxed cereals is the way to go - mum to five here, although they're all adults now - and their teeth & health will thank you for it too. Porridge can be done in the slow cooker on low overnight, with odds & ends of fruit (apple, raisins, tinned peaches, elderly banana) chopped in & a sprinkle of cinnamon, which really develops the flavours, though my OH prefers instant with jam or apple butter. Marmite toast (or similar - peanut butter?) for conscientious objectors; a little Marmite goes a long way! Pancakes have always worked for us, with whatever fruit I could lay my hands on cheaply or for free; currently blackberries & raspberries.  But we keep a handful of chickens, so for us eggs are essentially free - yes, we do buy some food for them, but they also eat cooked-up leftovers & peelings. I make the pancake mix up in the evening & leave it in the fridge overnight & it's still a huge favourite when the boys & their partners come home. I still pick up cheap or damaged fruit when our local street market's packing up, and freeze it if I'm not making anything else with it.

Do you have a bread maker? Our kids could demolish a freshly-baked loaf in seconds, & ours has a delayed-start function that meant I could set it up the night before, to be ready as they got up. That gadget paid for itself very quickly in terms of making pizza dough for home-made pizzas, as well as loaves, & is still with us even though the youngest is now 25. Check your local Freegle group if you don't have one, and remember you can request as well as offer stuff; they're often given away on ours. Well worth giving up the space for.

Apintplease

MrsStepford said:

Cereal is ultra-processed rubbish. They take all the natural goodness out, that's why they fortify them with chemical vitamins. What about eggs ? Boiled (egg boiler ?), fried or poached on toast, omelettes, egg muffins with left over veg, bacon etc
https://heronfoods.com/maggie-makes/recipe-details/lite-bites/bacon-n-egg-muffin-cups

Cereal and animal kibble - the wastage of food

In what I mean, cereal and kibble are side products, filled with sugars and fats to make them palatable to us so we buy them making the producers a huge amount of money getting us ( and our animals) hooked on sugar and fat