I am particularly bad about this because I grew up on cold cereal. I still love it. One of my favorite things to do is eat cereal at night before bed while watching a Star Trek or BSG. But I also know that my cereal budget is $40 every two weeks. Not to mention the fact that we go through a monumental amount of milk. Cereal is one of those items I have always refused to go “the cheapest route” on. Because my kids eat it for breakfast and snack and because I like it, I’ve always purchased fancier, organic cold cereals. But no more!

I have, in the past (when we were out of cereal) made excellent breakfasts out of muffins; pancakes; french toast (with homemade bread); oatmeal; eggs and more.

I’m not sure when we decided that cereal was a necessity, but it certainly isn’t. I’ve learned to make cookies, granola bars - all of the things that I used to believe I was mandated as a parent to provide my children. In fact, I now make so much of our own food that we rarely spend any time at all in the inner aisles at the grocery store (except the pasta aisle, I do spend a lot of time there!).

With the price of corn and other grains headed up and the box sizes on cereals headed down, this seems to be the most practical move. Not to mention all of the energy it takes to refine the cereal and package and ship it. So, it’s pretty green too!

So, dear friends, it stops now. As of this date - May 9, 2008 - the Hogan’s will no longer buy cold cereal as a matter of course. We will, however, continue our tradition of occasionally buying a sugar-coated favorite for dessert (just cuz a girl needs her Lucky Charms once in a while). But other than that…I’m done. How about you?