Cereal is not a meal, much less a healthy meal. Cereal is a dry, crunchy, sugary snack meant to be eaten by the handful straight from the box. No one can convince me otherwise.
I was a cereal guy most of my life but when the cost of a box + milk skyrocketed I realized I could rotate between the three below for much cheaper but also a lot more healthy and less processed. All of them still really fast to make for weekday breakfast.
1. Steel cut 'quick' oats (they still take 10 minutes) with cinnamon and bananas, sometimes berries. (this especially is like 20% as expensive as cereal + milk)
2. English muffin or fresh sourdough toast sandwich with egg, cheese and turkey bacon. (costs slightly less than new astronomical cereal prices)
3. Smoothie with berries, banana, peanut butter, protein powder, almond milk. (costs about the same as new era of cereal prices, maybe just slightly more)
I do still like cereal as a snack or in a bowl with milk, but I've kind of come around to not thinking of it as a breakfast anymore.