Airtight way to save money
VACUUM SEALER | Buy food in bulk, divvy up, freeze
A Mother's Day gift Nancy Kasch received last year is paying dividends for her in the wake of higher food and gas prices.
The gift: a vacuum food sealer.
(Rich Hein/Sun-Times)
Kasch, a 60-year-old Franklin Park retiree, said it has helped her save significantly on groceries.
Grocers offer sale prices on larger packages of meat. "I always buy the larger amount and get out my handy-dandy vacuum food sealer, package the meat into useable portions, and pop them in the freezer for future use," she said.
The vacuum sealer enables her to store more food, and she doesn't have to worry about freezer burn, Kasch said.
Saving money is important for Kasch, who retired about seven years ago from her job as a server in a Westin restaurant. Her 61-year-old husband, Ken Kasch, was forced to retire from his job last year as a route salesman for RC Cola after suffering a catastrophic spinal chord injury at work that left him paralyzed. As a result, the couple's income has been cut by roughly half, Nancy Kasch said.
"I have been doing a lot of stockpiling," she shared. "When I see broccoli on sale for 59 cents a pound, I will buy five or six pounds of it. I will partially cook it, and then I vacuum seal it.
"People have a tendency to buy convenience food. They see three pieces of chicken breast and it's $1.89 a pound, but you can buy a family package for less.
"Instead of buying a pork roast that's $2.79 a pound, I will buy the whole loin, which I can get for a cheaper price, and I cut it up myself into a couple of pork roasts and a couple of pork chops."
Kasch said her daughter bought her the vacuum sealer.
"It was probably the best gift I ever got," she said. "It is so cool."
To help make ends meet, the couple also last year sold one of their cars, and Kasch said she started a vegetable garden this year.
"I had kind of stopped doing it a couple of years ago," she said of the garden. "Then I thought, with the cost of food and everything, that will help with produce costs.
"People need all the help they can get nowadays. Everybody's hurting."
What are you doing to make ends meet? Write to psmith@suntimes.com