Store Bought vs. Homemade

This will be a pretty short post since we didn't really do too much...

We slept in. Hallelujah!! I don't think I realized how much I needed sleep until I woke up on Saturday morning and I wasn't tired. Talk about a miracle! Seriously.

The day basically consisted of grocery shopping and baking. Every two weeks we do the grocery shopping routine: Costco and Walmart. But, the BEST thing about going to Costco on a Saturday afternoon is the sample tables. YUM! I basically got an entire lunch, including chimichangas, garlic bread, gatorade, pulled pork, and even an oatmeal cookie! I love Costco...

Walmart is actually one of our favorite places to go now, too. A new Walmart just opened up in Spanish Fork and it is a warehouse-style Walmart that is almost just like Costco. One of the other awesome things about Walmart is their Savings Catcher. Certain products that are registered with the Savings Catcher can actually give you money back! If Walmart can find other store competitors that have a lower price on the same product you bought at Walmart, then you will get back the difference! It's so nice. Though we haven't gotten a boatload, we do appreciate the little bit of fun money :)

In fact, while I'm on the subject, there are a lot of phone apps that I personally recommend to help save money, or get some money back, when grocery shopping: Checkout 51, Snap (by Groupon), and ibotta. If you're anything like Kaleb and I (dirt poor) and looking for some extra change, these apps are a good way to do it. Groceries cost a bunch already, why not get some money back?

Cooking up the Granola Bars!

After we got home and put all the groceries away, Kaleb and I tried our hand at making homemade granola bars. It was really fun and an easy recipe, except for one thing... our over likes to over-bake things. It seems lie we have to significantly adjust the baking/cooking time on every recipe to get a good result. Unfortunately, our first round of roasting the oats for the granola bars went a little long and, though not quite burnt, they were a little extra brown. Oops! But we were able to make about 45 homemade granola bars from the recipe at about a fourth of the cost from the store! Pretty good deal, if I must say so :)

In any case, we may try a different recipe next time. But we're learning!! Hmmm.... This post didn't turn out to be as short as I was expecting...