by Tricia
We are always on the lookout for ways to save money. Lately, we have been trying to buy things that we use a lot in larger quantities. For the most part, the bigger the package, the lower the price (although there are exceptions – always check!).
One thing that is heavily used in our household is ketchup. I personally don’t use it a lot (maybe only on fries), but my husband puts it on everything fried or fake-fried in the oven – steak, chicken, pork, fish, french fries. My son takes after his father. With two ketchup-loving people in our house, we go through a lot of it.
When you look at ketchup on a per bottle basis, it can get a little expensive. Since we go through so much, we decided to buy a large Heinz container of ketchup as well as a $2.00 pump to go with it. Instead of buying bottle after bottle of ketchup, we would buy large containers of ketchup (any brand) to refill the Heinz container.
During our last trip to Walmart, my husband grabbed a can of Hunt’s ketchup. He was excited at how much ketchup you could get for a low cost. As he placed it in our cart, I took a look and gave him a smile that showed my approval. When the both of us are on board with saving money – it’s a very happy feeling.
Tonight, my husband fried some chicken wings we bought on special and some french fries. Our Heinz ketchup container was empty, so my husband grabbed the new can of Hunts and opened it. He noted that it was a bit runny, and we both at first shrugged it off since we haven’t had Hunt’s brand in a while. I grabbed a spoon to dish out some ketchup for my son. As my spoon swirled around the can, I started getting that feeling in my stomach that something was terribly wrong.
“Look!” I told my husband.
“What?”
“Look at the can!”
“What?”
“Look!”
My husband smiled as he finally realized that in bigger wording in the middle of the can it stated, “Tomato Sauce.”
Now we have 6 lbs, 9 ounces of tomato sauce. I’ve already placed it in containers and put it in the fridge. It’s not a complete waste because we do use tomato sauce to make our own pizza sauce. Although…I’m not sure we could get through the whole can before it goes bad. I have a feeling we’ll be searching the net for other things we can make with the sauce before it goes bad.
Lesson learned – if you think you are getting a great deal by purchasing a can of ketchup, make sure it is a can of ketchup! 🙂
