They are quart size, regular mouth. They come with a reusable lid (that's the jar on the right), although I only re-use the lid for dry/dehydrated storage. They feel a little thinner than regular canning jars, so at present, I only plan to use them for BWB or dehydrated storage.
The jar on the left (and below) has been vacuum sealed with a regular canning lid.
This jar was sealed over a month ago, and it is still holding.
I buy mine at Smart & Final in Huntington Beach. They run about $2 a jar.
Is it cheaper to buy canning jars even at outrageous case prices ($13 a case here in non-canning country), and then buy cheap Hunts spaghetti sauce? Likely yes: you can buy Hunts on sale often for .75 per can or at least $1 per can, and jars will run you $1.10 ea when you buy a case.
But I can't use FoodStamps to buy canning jars. Along with not being able to use Food Stamps to buy toilet paper, not being able to purchase canning jars is one of life's mysteries. But I can use food stamps to buy La Romanella spaghetti sauce, and re-use the jars.
So that's what I'm doing. For two months now, I have purchased 12 jars of sauce a month. I buy 50# onions and dehydrate them, 50# carrots and juice or dehydrate them and store both in these repurposed jars. Cereal (the huge bags) were being clearanced out for $1.75 a bag, so I got five of them, and am re-jarring a bag when it is opened. Not only does it keep the cereal fresh, but oddly enough, it keeps my kids from devouring the entire bag in a single sitting.
My next re-purposing are Smuckers jam jars, the smaller "too cool" organic ones, which run $3.99 (ouch) a jar. I hope to get up to 12 (slowly, that price point hurts a lot), so that I can re-purpose them for yogurt. Although I guess I could just cook the yogurt in the glass loaf pan and then transfer it to pint jars. Hmmm....I'll have to think about that one. That may make more sense in the long run.
UPDATE: Got my Foodsaver Vac550 working again. Shook it a bit (heard sometimes dust or particles get lodged in there), sucked air out for about 1 minute without locking it down, then locked it down and waited until the green light came on/went off, which unlocked it. Worked like a charm. What a relief! I can't afford to buy oxygen absorbers on a regular basis.
If you have a WINCO near you look in their canning section. I found some good deals there. Last deal was 6 1/2 gallon jars for $7. Also freecycle. About a month ago I picked up a bunch of boxes of lids both regular and wide mouth. The boxes had never even been opened. It was abour 30 boxes. Never know what you will find on freecycle.
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