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Sunday, January 12, 2014

Saving Money by Vacuum Sealing Food In Mason Jars


I first learned about vacuum sealing dry food in jars from a blog post written by Granny Miller. She uses the type of  jar sealer attachment that works with the Food Saver vacuum sealer system, which can be expensive. I've wanted the Food Saver system for a long time, but didn't want to put out the money for one. 

On her old website, which is now defunct, she once made a blog post which showed her vacuum sealing thirty pounds of sugar into a dozen or more mason jars. The idea intrigued me and has always stuck with me. I had read a book one time where the idea of dry canning in the oven was explained, but then read that the practice wasn't considered safe, so I discarded that idea. So, the idea of safely vacuum sealing dry food in jars has stayed in the back of my mind. 

Imagine being able to store things like sugar, beans, rice, dehydrated vegetables, chocolate, candy, etc. in jars on the shelves of your pantry for an extended amount of time. We make our home in Tennessee where the seasons are very humid and therefore have to take special measures to protect our food storage. With this system I can safely store items like flour, pasta, and beans on my pantry shelves and not have to worry about the humidity damaging my food supply.

Last month I was reading on the Grocery Budget 101 website and learned that Food Saver now makes a smaller, less expensive hand held device that you can use to seal dry food in jars.  

The device is called the Food Saver Fresh Saver Handheld Vacuum Sealing System, and they sell it on Amazon for $18.16, which is a much better price than the Food Saver appliance. 



In order to use the device you will also need a jar sealer and Amazon sells those in either the regular size for $9.60, and they even sell ones for wide mouth jars for $9.99. What I like about this system is that you do not have to use new canning lids, you can use ones that have already been used before, which is definitely a money saver. 


We know that our food cannot stay fresh forever, but with the right tools, we can certainly make it last as long as possible. I'm going to be working with my new vacuum sealer and will be putting pictures up in the near future of what I've accomplished with this new device, so please stay tuned. 

Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011-2013.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”

4 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good investment. Thanks for joining my blog, it sounds like we are two of a kind.

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    1. Thank you for visiting. I enjoyed your blog.

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  2. An interesting idea. That could be very helpful with a humid climate. It would also enable you to buy very large packages of dry goods and divide up. Plus, I imagine it would keep pantry pests out (and kill off any hitch-hiking larvae), which can be a problem when buying very large sacks of rice.

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    1. I think so too, Lili. I will be sure to let you all know in a future blog post.

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