This is a cost comparison on how to make your own muesli bars from scratch to save money and know exactly what ingredients are going into them.
Muesli bars are something that are worth making from scratch compared to if you buy them from the supermarket.
Using very basic ingredients you keep on hand all the time, you can make these muesli bars in no time and you’ll know exactly what ingredients are in them.
MUESLI BARS & OTHER LUNCH BOX SNACKS
Don’t worry. I get it. We’re all very busy and grabbing a $5 box of 12 muesli bars to throw in your child’s lunch box is super convenient.
I’ve tasted those store bought muesli bars and I don’t think they compare in taste to anything you can bake at home. Muesli bars (or oat bars, flapjacks, etc etc) are such an easy thing to throw together while you’re getting dinner ready.
They’re so easy for the kids to make as well. It’s just melt and mix. All you need is rolled oats, a few other very basic pantry staples and then you can let your hair down and throw in whatever your child’s favourite things are.
Things like:
- chocolate chips
- nuts
- dried fruit
- or check out the supermarket aisle for recipe combination inspiration
My biggest problem is what’s in the supermarket muesli bars. Check this out for a popular brand of Chocolate Chip Muesli Bars.
INGREDIENTS:
Rolled Oats (34%), Glucose ( Wheat ), Whole Grain Wheat (11%), Compound Chocolate Chips (9%) [Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Milk Solids, Cocoa, Cocoa Mass, Emulsifiers (492, Soy Lecithin), Salt], Breakfast Cereal (Wholemeal Wheat Flour (5%), Wheat Starch, Sugar, Vitamin E), Chicory Root Fibre, Sunflower Oil ( Soy ), Sugar, Humectant (Glycerine), Modified Wheat Starch (1412), Invert Sugar, Coconut ( Sulphites ), Honey, Milk Powder, Emulsifier ( Soy Lecithin), Flavour, Salt, Preservative (223) ( Sulphites ) Contains Gluten Containing Ingredients, Milk, Soy and Sulphites. May Contain Lupin., Uncle Tobys Rolled Oats (34%), Glucose ( Wheat ), Whole Grain Wheat (11%), Compound Chocolate Chips (9%) [Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Milk Solids, Cocoa, Cocoa Mass, Emulsifiers (492, Soy Lecithin), Salt], Breakfast Cereal (Wholemeal Wheat Flour (5%), Wheat Starch, Sugar, Vitamin E), Chicory Root Fibre, Sunflower Oil ( Soy ), Sugar, Humectant (Glycerine), Modified Wheat Starch (1412), Invert Sugar, Coconut ( Sulphites ), Honey, Milk Powder, Emulsifier ( Soy Lecithin), Flavour, Salt, Preservative (223) ( Sulphites ) Contains Gluten Containing Ingredients, Milk, Soy and Sulphites. May Contain Lupin.
Seriously? You need a science degree to know what half of those things are!
THE RECIPE I USE FOR MAKING MUESLI BARS FROM SCRATCH
My recipe for Honey Oat Bars (from my high school Home Economics cook book “Day to Day Cookery” which I use as a base for my muesli bars) has these ingredients:
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup plain flour
- 1/2 cup coconut
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/8 cup honey
- 90gm butter
- 1/4 tsp bicarb soda
- 1/4 chocolate chips (optional)
That’s it! Other than the bicarb soda, everything is natural, they aren’t too sweet and this recipe produces about 18 ‘bars’.
COST COMPARISON OF MAKING THEM FROM SCRATCH
I did the exercise and costed out this recipe.
Compared to the 12 pack box of branded Chocolate Chips Muesli Bars at $5.00 ($0.60 each), the cost to make these yourself as above works out at a total of $1.46 for 18 bars or 9 cents each!
A SAVING OF $3.64 per BOX or $0.51 cents each.
If you bought a box per week, that would cost $260 for 624 bars in 12 months.
If you made a batch per week of 18 (or made a double batch and stored them in the freezer) at a cost of $1.46, it would cost you $75.92 for 936 bars!
That would be a saving of $184.08 over the course of the year.
Not only that, you’ll know exactly what’s going into the bars compared to that massive list of ingredients above.
THE COST COMPARISON & THE RECIPE
I’ve based the cost of the ingredients on current Coles Supermarket prices (as at October 2020) and used the homebrand ingredients and, in this case, I opted to use syrup instead of honey in this recipe because syrup is cheaper.
If you ever want to calculate what it costs to make a recipe, this handy calculator is great.
It’s a bit fiddly because you need to find the cost of the total ingredient, how much a serving weighs (just Google it) and then enter into the calculator above. A good exercise and you’ll soon see how much you can actually save from making your food from scratch.
