Whoa...... been a while since I got to use this one. *cracks knuckles*
Welcome TJ !!!!
As you get along your new journey through the ABC's, step one is a reliable test kit. You can't trust anyone to have your best interests at heart. Sure the pool store is friendly but they exist solely to sell you stuff. You are a metric, not a customer.
Without a reliable, repeatable test kit, the rest of it really doesn't even matter. You might as well just go on back once a week and toss 3 random chemicals in the pool. You'll have similar results.
Anywho, we like Taylor drop based kits. The K-2006C is widely available online or the TF-100 (or 100pro / 100 pro salt) from tftestkits.net is custom tailored to the way we do it. See the differences here.
Test Kits Compared the same stuff just different amounts.