It is a balancing act for sure ~ personally I prefer to encourage my families get into the routine of offering breakfast at home because it is the most important meal of the day and something that if a habit in childhood is more likely to carry forth into adulthood plus sadly as much as we do not like to think about it in a few short years they will be getting up to go to school instead of daycare and schools do not have breakfast programs ~ at least not in my city ~ so if they have not established a strong morning routine between ages 1-3 to promote time for breakfast it will be a challenge come turning 4 and rushing for school buses and so forth to squeeze it in and well trying to 'learn' on an empty stomach is not ideal

However, establishing healthy habits aside, I do get that some children do not always cooperate with eating 'a full breakfast' as soon as they wake up ~ so even if offered they might only nibble at some fruit or yogurt and be hungry again in an hour or so ~ which is why I provide a morning snack that is a 'light breakfast' in nature which can serve as either a 'snack size' or 'breakfast size' depending on how hungry they are ... so some days they only eat a tiny bit if they ate well at home and others they will eat several servings depending on if they ate or if they are in a growth spurt ... this is 'normal' IME and it is really hard sometimes to 'guess' how much food to prepare for children!

To combat waste I serve 'small servings' to them and if they eat that than I give seconds and if I make more of something than is eaten I can just 'save' what was not served as leftovers for my spouses breakfast next day...he will eat just about anything 'left over' even scrambled eggs, pancakes, waffles so it does not get 'wasted'

If they are particularly hungry one morning and they all eat everything I have 'guesstimated' to need with the prepared food and are still looking wide eyed with hunger I keep my fridge stocked with fresh fruit I just add another option of that to the snack.

I do agree that over 1/3 of my weekly revenue goes towards the children's FOOD each week ~ feeding children healthy options is an investment for sure!