Shoutout to that $40 vacuum sealer I bought on a whim 2 years ago

I got it off Amazon during a late night scroll, figuring I'd use it once and let it collect dust. But now I buy family packs of chicken when they're on sale for $1.99 a pound and portion them out myself. It's saved me probably over $200 in meat that would have gotten freezer burned and tossed. Anyone else find a random gadget that actually earned its keep?

2 comments

2 Comments

hollym826d agoTop Commenter

Figured I'd use it once and let it collect dust" - that is exactly how I buy half the stuff in my kitchen. But honestly, that vacuum sealer thing is part of a bigger shift I've noticed over the last few years. People are finally waking up to the fact that a lot of our "convenience" stuff is actually making us waste money. Like buying pre-cut veggies or individual yogurt cups, you're basically paying extra for the packaging and the labor. My mom used to call it "the lazy tax" and she was right. The sealer is one of those things that forces you to slow down and do the small extra step upfront, but then pays off big time later. It's like meal prep in general - takes an hour on Sunday but saves you all week. I think a lot of random gadgets are just gimmicks, but the ones that actually help you stop throwing away food? Those are the keepers.

mason_flores216d ago

Wait wait wait hold up. You're telling me your mom called it "the lazy tax" too? @hollym82 I swear that's one of those things parents just know without having to look it up. My dad calls pre-shredded cheese "lazy cheese" and honestly he's not wrong. It's like they all have this secret handbook of kitchen wisdom we don't get until we're older. But yeah you're spot on about the sealer thing. I bought one two years ago thinking I'd use it once and forget about it, now I'm that person who buys meat in bulk and freezes it in portions like a total weirdo. The upfront effort is annoying but seeing bags of meat still fresh months later feels like winning against the system.