Depends on what you are sealing. I have a very nice Food Saver which I am using less often. The hand held model is easier to grab and can seal some bags as well as jars. Most glass jars with rubber seals can be well-washed and repurposed for dry food storage. There is a lot of info at the vacumm/food preserving group on Yahoo. Short takeaway: From them I learned that glass jars such as peanut butter and spaghetti sauce may be found can be vacuum sealed with a variety of suction devices. The hand held Food Saver works, as does the Ziplok pump for their bags. Make a pin hole in the metal top, cover with a patch of electrical tape (the black rubbery stuff), lifting a corner so the pump can remove air via the pin hole. The forming vacuum will suck the tape down to seal the hole. With some practice, you should be able to seal foods for longer storage using some cheap, repurposed materials. Who doesn't like to save a few bucks?