My love affair with Oroweat (and saving money)

As much as I love homemade bread (as is evidenced by my Peasant Boule recipe), I don't have time to bake it regularly. It's not really that I don't have any extra down time... it's just that I eat a lot of bread. I'm a carb addict. I get it from my mom.

I love good bread. However, I am also cheap. Thrifty. Stingy. Whatever you want to call it. I like to save a buck (I get that from my mom, too). So when my friend Mike told me about the Oroweat outlet near my condo, I was intrigued. This friend, not to be confused with my husband Mike, also likes to save money. He knew I would appreciate this place.

And appreciate it, I do. It is simply amazing. All the bread you could ever want. And just $2 for a loaf. $2.50 for an extra-large loaf. $1.49 for English muffins. This is the stuff that costs upwards of $4 at Fry's. So I'm getting good bread, and I'm spending the same amount I was spending for a loaf of not-so-good bread before.

They have a punch card, so you can work toward a free item. AND, if you spend more than $5, you get an item off the "free shelf," which is just a shelf of loaves of bread. AND, if you buy a reusable bag for 99 cents, you get another free item off the free shelf.

When my parents were in town in May, my dad and husband spent a day laying down new bathroom flooring while I took my mom to the Oroweat outlet. Cuz I knew she would appreciate it.

You can literally spend $10 and get a month's worth of bread. Mike (the friend) and I always text message each other when we have a particular good run at Oroweat. It goes something like this: "Just spent $9.73. Got 4 loaves of bread, 2 eng muffins and a reusable bag. Long live Oroweat!"

Anyway. I have a point to all this. Mike's (my husband's) boss, Lara, says Oroweat has finally outdone itself. They came up with these sandwich thins. They're healthy (yay! to counteract all the cookies I eat!) and she says they're really good. I trust Lara. She has not yet steered me wrong in food or in books, so I'm hoping the outlet has these when I go over the weekend to restock.


Anyone else addicted to bread? Where do you get your good bread deals?