Families Cutting Costs > Food > Breakfasts > AI Prompts

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🔍 How to Complete This Challenge - By Yourself and with your family members

1. Choose a typical breakfast your family eats (e.g., cereal, toast, eggs).

2. Look at packaging, receipt, or store shelf label to find price, weight, and nutrition info.

3. Fill in the details below to estimate cost per serving.

4. Submit your entry to get feedback from ChatGPT about the cost, nutrition, and lower-cost alternatives, along with the description of your family.

💬 AI Prompt (Copy & Paste into ChatGPT)

“Here is a breakfast we make. Can you estimate the cost per serving, its nutritional value, and suggest similar lower-cost or higher-nutrition options?”

• Breakfast Name: [e.g., 2 slices of toast with peanut butter]
• Estimated Cost per Serving: [$0.70 CAD]
• Calories per Serving: [320]
• Ingredients and Brand (optional): [e.g., Dempster’s 100% Whole Wheat, Kraft Peanut Butter]
• Packaged or Homemade?: [Packaged]
• Barcode (if any): [e.g., 060383138191]
• Prepared at home or bought ready-to-eat?: [Prepared at home]

Other Prompts to Try:

1. Cost & Quantity Tracking

“Here is my family size, number of breakfasts we prepare per week, and the items we usually serve for breakfast, with their package sizes, unit costs, and how long they last. Please estimate our current monthly cost for breakfast and identify the top 3 items driving our costs.”

2. Compare Unit Costs

“Here is a list of breakfast foods we buy, their price per package, and the number of servings per package. Please calculate the cost per serving for each item and suggest at least 3 lower-cost alternatives for each that still provide similar nutritional value.”

3. Brand vs. Generic Swap

“These are our typical brand-name breakfast items and their prices. Please compare them to generic or store-brand versions available in my area and estimate our potential monthly and annual savings if we switch.”

4. Fresh vs. Processed

“Here are the processed breakfast items we buy most often and their prices (e.g., cereal, instant oatmeal, breakfast bars). Please compare their cost per serving to a homemade version and estimate possible savings per month if we switch some or all to homemade.”

5. Restaurant/Takeout Reduction

“We usually eat breakfast out or buy coffee/bagels from [location] X times per week at $Y per meal. Please estimate our annual cost and suggest 5 ways to replace these with lower-cost options, including quick-prep ideas.”

6. Nutrition per Dollar

“Here are the breakfast foods we buy, with prices and serving sizes. Please calculate the nutrition per dollar (protein, fiber, key vitamins) and recommend 3 substitutions or additions that would increase nutrition per dollar while keeping costs the same or lower.”

7. Bulk Buying Opportunities

“Here are the breakfast items we consume weekly. Please identify which ones we could buy in bulk for at least 15% savings, estimate the monthly savings, and suggest how to store them to reduce spoilage.”

8. Seasonal & Local Options

“Here are our usual fruits, vegetables, and proteins for breakfast. Please identify seasonal or local alternatives for the next 3 months that could lower our costs while providing similar nutrition.”

9. Special Diet Adjustments

“One or more family members have [dietary requirement]. Here is our current breakfast menu and cost per serving. Please suggest compliant breakfast options that reduce our cost by at least 20% without lowering nutrition.”

10. Waste Reduction

“Here are the breakfast items we regularly throw away or don’t finish. Please estimate the cost of this waste per month and suggest specific strategies to reduce waste and save money.”

Future Options:

🔍  Complete this Challenge with Local Data from FCC

• As Families complete Challenges and are willing to share data, a localized set of costs, suppliers, and best practices can be compiled and submitted with a family's inputs to "inform" AI.
• The ever-expanding set of local data will "train" AI on local costs, suppliers, and best practices to match with resources, needs, and interests of individual families in the locale or community.

🔍 Complete this Challenge with Assistance

• Youth FCC Assistant
• College Student Technical Assistance Team
• Professional Consultants

🔍 Complete this Challenge with Other Families in a Group

1. Are you a member of a community association?  congregation? club?  Ideally find 25 other families to also do the same Challenge.  Share Data, Benchmarks, Best Practices, and What Works - ways you can reduce costs individually but also as a group, finding group solutions.
2. Examples:  buy breakfast foods in bulk; buy breakfast foods like eggs directly from an egg producer; buy potatoes in the Fall, use a community kitchen to process and flash-freeze as homefries, and share food storage space.