I’ve Used This FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer for 12 Years—It’s 30% Off During Amazon’s Big Spring Sale

Many years ago, my father-in-law gifted my husband and me a FoodSaver vacuum sealer. At first, I didn’t see how this tool would fit into our lives, but then I got a Costco membership and everything changed.

Although I quickly fell in love with Costco’s positive impact on my monthly grocery bill, there were tons of items at the warehouse store that I never bothered putting in my cart for fear of them languishing in my fridge or pantry. The last thing I wanted was to waste food because my household of two couldn’t eat it before it went bad. Enter my trusty FoodSaver vacuum sealer.

I have the most basic FoodSaver vacuum sealer, which is currently part of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale at 26% off ($69.99 after discount). You can also score a deal on a more deluxe version with automatic bag detection and a built-in vacuum bag roll storage and a cutter so you can make custom-size vacuum bags. Fancy!

How I Use My FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer To Save Money

The first Costco deal that allowed me to break in my vacuum sealer was a two-pound brick of Tillamook Two-Year Extra Sharp White Cheddar cheese. This cheese is an exceptional deal, but it takes the two of us at least a month, if not two, to get through the whole block. I’d been improvising longer-term storage by dividing the block into three pieces, wrapping each piece tightly with plastic wrap, and freezing two of them, keeping the third in the fridge for immediate use.

However, frozen cheese tends to become crumbly and hard to grate. It isn’t the end of the world but is far from ideal. The vacuum sealer proved to be an instant life upgrade. As soon as I got home from Costco, I divvied up the cheese and vacuum sealed most of it. The vacuum-sealed cheese kept for months in the fridge (no freezing necessary!) without losing quality or growing mold, a discovery that allowed me to take full advantage of even more Costco cheese deals.

It Also Prevents Food Waste

Once I got started on my vacuum sealer kick, I started seeing its potential for other Costco finds. A two-pound bag of pecans goes a long way for two people, and I’d been storing it in the freezer but found that over time the nuts picked up freezer flavor. Not so with vacuum-sealed pecans! Now I vacuum seal them in 1-cup amounts so anytime I need pecans there’s a small bag ready to go, freezer flavor not included.

Frozen berries are another great item to vacuum seal. While berries don’t seem to pick up freezer flavor as readily as nuts, they do succumb to freezer burn. Again, the vacuum sealer comes in clutch, keeping those berries pristine until I’m ready to use them in smoothies, pancakes, and desserts.

Over the ten-plus years that I’ve owned my FoodSaver, I’ve used it to seal salmon fillets when they’re on sale, homemade pesto when my garden is thriving and I need to process bunches of basil, and extend the shelf life of highly perishable foods like wheat germ and almond meal. Anything that isn’t a liquid is fair game.

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