The Economics of Breakfast

Frugality adds up most when it is daily.  That's really about the only place where pennies matters---over decades.

And what is more daily than breakfast?  (At least for folks like me who like to be healthy and have reasonable control over our weight.)

Both of these look pretty good from the front.

But from the back we see that oatmeal, at $2.48 a package, costs .08 cents a serving because there are a whopping 30 servings per package.  However, cereal, at $2.50 a package, costs .19 cents a serving because one box boasts only 13 servings.

And seriously, who puts only a cup of cereal in her bowl in the morning?  The box probably has more like 8 servings in it, further driving up the price.  Oatmeal offers better portion control.

But what about taste?  Good point.  The really, really cheap oatmeal, the kind that has to be soaked overnight or cooked for an inconveniently long time tastes like wallpaper paste.  (Even soaking it in applejuice over night was insufficient.)  I'm not cheap enough to start off my day grouchy!

My solution: raisins.  Granted, they drive up the price of oatmeal close to the cereal price.  But I'm slowly putting less and less in my cereal. And they have more nutritional value than sugar.  Honey is also an option.  In the summer, I'm planning on fresh strawberries from our garden.

But what if oatmeal is inconceivable?  What if you are still trying to wean yourselves off of expensive sugary hyper-advertised preservative-laced ickiness?  Check out this post on how to eat boring cereal.