6 Low Budget Film Food Tips: Breakfast under $10

So, you put together enough money, plastic or collateral to make your independent film. There are ways to get around the necessary task of feeding cast and crew without spending too much in this category. Here are 7 Breakfast Ideas Under $10 for Film Productions:

Pop Tarts work for low Budget films
This is a favorite breakfast choice for children AND adults, so this may save you time and money looking for different breakfast items for each age group. A small box of eight Pop Tarts (Equal to four people working on your film) costs $2.99. When Pop Tarts are on sale, you can find them for as low as $1.99 per box. These breakfast favorites are also available in a larger box of twelve (equal to six people on your film set). You can stock up on at least five boxes of pop tarts when they are on sale and possibly save even more money using coupons. They come in a variety of flavors including cherry, blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, whole grain and cheese danish.

There are so many different flavors that it can take up to 20 minutes going through all of them. Survey your cast and crew to see what they like OR just buy the main flavors. Make sure to purchase the frosted versions unless a film staff members requests otherwise. There are generic alternatives to pop tarts that are usually placed right next to the Kellogg's brand. DO NOT purchase generic pop tarts. They do not taste even close to the real thing. I have not met many adults who like generic pop tarts but have met some who tolerate them. I have not met a child who would take generic pop tarts over the real ones.

Serving Toaster Strudel on a film Set
While this is one of the top competitors of Pop Tarts, you can still serve Toaster Strudel on your film sets. This will take about $3 out of your film budget but there is a way to get more for your money. Toaster Strudel is on sale frequently at 2 for $5 and sometimes even 3 for $5. That can help filmmakers to cover their breakfast on set for at least two days. Toaster Strudel is more filling than Pop Tarts so choosing this option may hold your cast and crew over longer until lunchtime.

Cereal for everyone on low budget films
Times are a-changing and cereal is not as cheap as it used to be. However, you can still save money on your film budget when purchasing this breakfast food item. Most cereal products cost between $3.99 and $4.99. Some even come in two or three different sizes, which helps for people who are shopping on a low budget. If possible, get the largest box of cereal if most of your film staff likes the same brand.

You may find that after surveying cast and crew, everybody likes different cereal and possibly even the weird ones that no one pays attention to on the grocery store shelf. Select three of the most favored cereals and buy them. Three boxes might bring you up to $10 which is not good because you still need milk. You have two options here and they are to borrow milk from family, friends or neighbors OR bring your grocery store bill down by finding sale prices for your cereal choices and using related coupons. To be really savvy, compare your cast and crew survey results to the sales flyers from a few grocery stores and only buy the cereal that is on sale and that also matches your cast and crew requests.

Cereal Bars meets low budget filmmaking
Quaker Oats, Nutri-Grain, Sunbelt and Entenmann’s are a few companies that makes cereal bars. This is one of the cheapest items that can be served for breakfast on a low budget film set. They are covered with grains and have a fruit filled center. You can also mix these up with granola bars so that cast and crews members are not eating the same breakfast every day. Many popular cereal bars and granola bars (like Quaker brand cereal bars) can cost around $4.99 for a box of 8. However, you can get boxes of granola bars for $1.99 and less if you compare brands and shop around.

Working with Toast on a low budget film set
This should be an obvious option for many low budget filmmakers who are running a production that includes morning hours but have no money to even cover transportation to central film locations. One loaf of bread will cost you $2 at the lowest and $4 on the higher end if you go for those fancy big name brands. You can save even more on your film budget by purchasing the cheapest bread as possible OR buying whatever is on sale. Grocery stores usually have sales that are "2 for $5" or "$1.99" of those "good" packages of bread. It does not matter if you buy store brand bread or popular bread.......it's all the same when put in a toaster.

Add some butter, margarine, strawberry and grape spreads and you'll be good to go. Jelly will cost you around $3 but you can find those on sale too and you don't even have to go to the grocery store to get them. Walmart, Target, Drug stores and even convenience stores carry jelly.

Getting Fancy:
If serving regular toast to cast and crew makes you feel like a cheap filmmaker who is making some lame movie that will never amount to anything, upgrade to cinnamon bread or cinnamon-raisin bread. Pepperidge Farm makes a good selection of these products but it is not the only "Cinnamon Raisin" brand available. Being fancy with this option will cost you a few dollars more, as it is not rare for cinnamon-raisin bread to cost nearly $5 for one loaf. If you have a medium sized crew, this could easily put you over the $10 mark since a loaf of cinnamon bread is much smaller than regular bread. To stay under a Low Film Food budget of $10, try and get donations of jelly and butter from your friends, family or associates. They may be more inclined to give you a stick of butter or a jar of jam than giving money.

Serving Bagels and film scripts
All products in the Bagels category are not made equal. Some brands require no extra maintenance and are good so long as you serve them by the expiration date listed on the package. Other Bagel brands (Lender's Bagels are known for this) are good as long as you freeze or refrigerate them. Now to be fair, Lender's bagels do produce a few bagel products that are fresh and can be left out of the refrigerator or freezer. I just have not found them, even after visiting at least five different grocery stores in five different geographical regions.

I HAVE however, found those refrigerated ones. There are many brands of bagels that give you lots of options when it comes to breakfast during filming. One bag of six bagels will cost around $4 but you can find them on sale at 2 for $5 if you go through newspapers, grocery store websites and weekly circulars. It's much cheaper than paying $1.79 for a Bagel with Cream Cheese at Dunkin' Donuts. Everyone does not enjoy bagels in the same fashion so you will still need butter and jelly. Make sure to have cream cheese available to those who enjoy bagels this way. Cream cheese will cost you less than $3.


Have you served breakfast on a film production before? If so, what was the experience like? What did you have?

If you could pick something off of this list of
7 Low Budget Film Food Tips: Breakfast under $10 to have on your next film set, what would it be?

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