We are a Breakfast Cereal family

Today while gathering up all the boxes and things to take out to recycling I couldn't help but laugh at the large stack of cereal boxes that I was taking out. In one weeks time we piled up about 10 empty boxes of Cereal. I don't really think we ate through 10 whole boxes of cereal in one week. I think it just ened up that way because we have been finishing off boxes that have sort of sat on the shelf with only a serving or so inside. But I know we eat a lot of cereal at our house. We eat it for breakfast at least 3 or 4 times a week, plus we eat it for snacks and often for dessert before heading to bed. Some may ask how we can afford to spend so much on Cereal and of course the milk that goes with it? Well... here is my secret.

We never pay full price for cereal. We almost always buy the store brand rather than the name brand and I get almost all of it at Target. It is the best place to buy cereal. We don't have a super Target just regular old Target. It has a small market section that sells crackers and cereal and such. No produce or freezer type things. But Target, unlike walmart, has a store brand. And we have found the store brand is just as good if not better than the name brand, for a lot cheeper. So I never spend more than $2.50 for a box of cereal.

Now as for the milk. Milk has fluctuated quite a bit in the last few month. Where we live it went up to $7.00 for two gallons. I think it is now down to only about $4.00 for two gallons. But I often when one of my gallon jugs get about half empty I make a few litters of powdered milk and mix it with the half gallon of store milk. The kids don't even notice the difference. If I was to give them the prepared powdered milk straight they always comment on the taste but when go half and half with the store milk nobody notices. I usually have a pitcher of prepared powdered milk in the fridge anyway to use with any cooking or baking that calls for milk. I save the store bought stuff for our cereal.

My husband drinks soy milk due to milk allergies. Soy milk is very expensive compared with regular milk. Does anyone have a secret for getting soy milk cheeper? We usually buy it at Costco which saves us a little but I would welcome any suggestions.

My kids new favorite is Special K fruit and yogurt. It was on sale at Target last week so we got a box or two. It turns their milk pink and they think it is a "fun"cereal. We don't usually get any "fun" cereals. No marshmellows or chocolate flavors. Those are treats if we happen to get them and they are only for dessert and never for breakfast. I tend to stick to only cereals that don't have any added colors and a reasonable amount of sugar in them. My kids love to add bananas and raisins to their cereal and if the cereal has berries it always disappears quickly.

So we go through a lot of cereal in a week. I take out boxes to be recycled today but they will quickly be replaced when we head to Target later on in the week.

There are worse food we could be eating.