As we continue to share Building Better Breakfasts for Less month here on our site, we also wanted to share ideas on what you can buy each week that are good values everyday, even without coupons or sales.
Just these items alone will make a huge positive impact on your grocery budget by going for these instead of the milk/cereal, pre-packaged breakfasts and breakfast convenience foods. Plus they are generally healthier than those items.
With this list, you can then make dozens of different breakfasts each month with ideas that we share on our breakfast page here.
With that, here’s the best values everyday.
- Jimmy Dean 100% Natural Sausage Rolls for $6.93 at both Costco and Sam’s Club. I can get 7 breakfasts out of one of these rolls. I cook it all up and divide into 7 sandwich bags and freeze and then can use the cooked sausage instantly in many of my breakfast creations. See the whole process and more tips on this post HERE. We also try to avoid or minimize foods with sodium nitrates and this sausage is 100% natural and contains no extras including the sodium nitrates. So it gets an A+ as it is a good value and it is a healthier option too! (Please note, the one we are talking about is three times as long as the one in the picture :))
- Hormel or Kirkland brand real bacon pieces for around $7-$9 a bag at Costco or Sam’s Club. This is a great value as it is equal to 5 lbs of bacon! Plus you don’t have to cook it! You do need to keep it in the fridge as it is real crumbled bacon. I personally am not a bacon fan – I don’t like to cook it, I don’t like to eat it, but my family enjoys it here and there so if I can include it in some of my breakfast creations without any effort, then I will give it to them. Since it is equal to 5 lbs of bacon for $7-$9, this is a real value as bacon averages $2.50 a lb.!
- Quick oats or steel cut oats in bulk at any grocery store, natural grocer or bulk foods supplier. The cost of bulk oats whether in the tubs, or even 25lb bags is a huge savings and value over the instant oatmeal packets and it is much more versatile as we will share more. This is a super buy and a great breakfast savings! Plus it is really good for you too!
- Rice – yes, I said rice for breakfast! Both white or brown rice in bulk! Rice goes a long way and a 50 lb. bag of rice at Costco is $17. You can find 20lb bags for $10 – $15 at Kroger and Walmart. 20lbs. even will go a long way! We eat rice for breakfast and I will share later just how we do that, but not only is it an exceptional value for breakfast, but for lunch and dinner too! If you go for brown rice, which costs a little more, you will get better health value for it! But even the “more expensive” brown rice is going to yield much greater value than other typical breakfast options.
- Raisins and Craisins can be purchased for super prices in bulk and at Costco and Sam’s Club. The value isn’t as good in the regular grocery store, so if you can buy it in bulk or warehouse, you will be far ahead of the value. Raisins and Craisins go a long way for breakfast and we use them in so many breakfast creations from oatmeal, rice, trail mix, waffles/pancakes, biscuits, etc.! It is a “fruit” option where you really cannot go wrong!
- Eggs are a good value with a sale at any store. But for an everyday value, you can get 5 dozen eggs at Costco and Sam’s Club for around $5-$6. If that sounds like an overwhelming number of eggs, don’t forget that: 1. they do last several weeks past expiration (one of the only foods that does) so even if you only used 1 dozen a week, they will be just fine all 5 weeks; 2. you can freeze eggs too! We eat eggs almost every morning, so we go through 5 dozen in just a couple of weeks.
- Also, we love to use berries and tropical fruits in many of our breakfasts from smoothies, to pancake and waffle toppings, to fruit sauces, etc. We buy fresh whenever we can, but we have found frozen berries and tropical fruits to be a great value everyday in the grocery store and an even better value in the warehouse stores. Let’s think about this….. for example, Sam’s Club sells a berry blend of strawberries, blueberries and blackberries for $8.58 for 48 oz. This is equal to 3lbs. or about $2.86 per lb., which is a good value, especially for blueberries and blackberries. That is really good and that is the price all year round! You will find similar price per lb. values in the grocery stores and Costco. You will be paying around 50-75% of the fresh price. Even if you can save an additional 25% on some of the fruits you buy, that is going to have a great impact on your budget! If you catch the frozen fruits on sale = better value. Also, if you catch the fresh fruits on sale, freeze them yourself for even better value!
- Find the best values on breakfast breads at the bread thrift stores. Everyday, you will save at least 50% from the grocery store.
- Finally, we rarely buy cheese at the big box stores, we just wait for our price point on cheese and then stock up! Our price point is the 8oz. blocks or shreds for 3 for $5, which is about $1.67 per 8oz. package. Once cheese hits that price or lower somewhere locally to us, we stock-up!
So there are ideas on what you can buy each week that will go a long way, are healthier than many pre-packed and processed breakfast food items and help your budget at the same time, even if you never use a coupon on any of them!
We also wanted to keep this list short and show you what you can do with the above list for breakfasts everyday to keep it simple and affordable!
What breakfast type foods do you buy often that you have found are a good value?
Plus be sure to check out our Building Better Breakfasts for Less page for ideas on how to use all of these items in different and creative ways everyday!
Photo Credits: Shutterbean.com and albertagrocery.coop
[…] – we almost always use the Jimmy Dean Natural sausage. Each roll of these from Sam’s Club/Costco costs around $6.93 and I cook it all in advance and freeze and have 7 breakfasts worth of sausage. The other meat I […]