I am now officially an non-buyer of commercial breakfast cereal. I have sworn off even the "healthy" varieties. I've tried and tested the theory for almost three weeks now and it's true: Hungry children will all eat oatmeal and cream of wheat without a fuss. So why am I shelling out for three boxes of cold cereal to be inhaled at one sitting? I can buy oatmeal for about $0.30/pound–before it's cooked. And it comes in 25 pound bags.
Imagine all the packaging I'm keeping out of the landfill.
I'm not even tempted by the corn flakes which are a dollar a box at Safeway this week–which, you have to admit, is a really good deal.
Bread, however, I'm leaning toward the purchased stuff, I don't know. I made six loaves on Monday and six loaves on Wednesday and Tuesday and Thursday we had to go without because six was not enough to last two days, apparently. That's a lot of bread. They don't like the store bought bread–therefore they go through significantly less of it. Hmmmmm. Haven't done a cost analysis on that one yet. It's basically free to make–I bought the wheat for ten cents a pound. But the time, that's the thing, isn't it?
Mental Maytag 
August 27th, 2009 at 11:07 am
I remember when l was a youngster living at home, my mom (your grandma) baked 10 loaves of bread 3 times a week. Bet started again to make our bread about a year ago. With boughten bread, 5 or 6 slices would last a Sunday meal with the regular gang (about 15) people. With home made bread, a loaf was never enough. The down side is that I eat too much bread because it is so good. So I do not know how to do the cost analysis, BUT I sure like the homemade bread.
August 27th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
It is so much better, isn't it? Tasting and probably better for you. I mean, certainly better for you. I've been making my own for ten years and therein lies the problem–everyone has come to expect it. But with the daycare business lately we really go through a lot of food on top of the usual.
August 27th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
My father occasionally made bread – it was wonderful. My mother would churn cream and make butter. The only "cereal" we ever had when I was young was porridge (oatmeal) and at some stage semolina was introduced. We had an old wood stove and my mother would put the oatmeal into water before bed and leave it on top of the stove. The heat would die down as the logs burnt and in the morning that porridge was soooooo good!!
August 27th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
I think my mother used to do this with wheat–but put it in a thermos with boiling water, and in the morning we'd eat it with honey. Not my favorite then, but I'll bet it was healthy!