One tactic I love to employ to save a bit of money on food is to just buy refills for ketchup or mayonnaise instead of buying new jars or bottles. Admittedly it doesn't feel the same as having a brand new fresh jar or bottle at first but after a while and you get used to it, there really isn't much difference at all especially on the taste obviously. The only downside is that you'd have to keep your jars and bottles more well kept than usual since you wouldn't just be throwing them away after a cycle as you usually do, but the small amount of savings you get from buying large packets instead of jars and bottles adds up to a lot in the long run especially if you're like me who uses a lot of ketchup and mayonnaise. What other products do you prefer refilling over buying a new container each time?
I refill hand soap and dish soap instead of buying a new package each time. Those are the only ones that I can think of. I don't really bother to refill condiments since I always have a few fast food condiment packets sitting around.
The only ones that are usually refilled is vinegar and soy sauce because we have the big sizes and we decant into a smaller bottle. You should only reuse glass bottles though and not plastic ones. These days I see cafes reuse glass ketchup bottles as they probably have catering sizes in the back. Nowadays as catering sizes are more readily available to the public it can be cheaper to buy for a big family.
I don't tend to do this, but only because I don't feel that we are able to get the bottles as clean as I would like before refilling them. We don't use many condiments at all though. In fact, I always take one or two packets whenever I am eating out anywhere, and more often than not this is more than enough to keep us going, so I just do that instead. If they bring them with our meal, we may as well take them, as they're not going to be using them for anyone else, so they would just go to waste otherwise.
I don't bother buying refills for any type of sauce but I do get them for salt, pepper (white and black) and vinegar. I don't save any containers as I've got this cute cruet set which is dishwasher safe.
The only sauces that we refill are soy sauce, sugar, salt and pepper because they just come in huge containers so we pour some out into smaller containers for the ease or sprinkling it on the food. Those are the usual condiments that I think everyone fills up containers for (maybe not soy sauce). But I don't tend to do that with ketchup or mayo because I buy really big bottles of them that take a long time to finish but the bottles themselves already come with a cap to squeeze it out from. I typically just throw those out because I think refilling them would be really unhygienic. I would think about it if the containers were glass, but I never refill plastic containers because I feel they're harder to clean out.
I only do it with certain ones where the price is actually significant and I keep a smaller bottle/jar for use. For example, mustard is really cheap anyway, but when you compare buying the small bottles versus the large ones that you can refill from, the price actually adds up.
Come to think of it, we never do this. We just continuously buy the bottles of condiments and even shampoo, but if we are on a budget, then we buy the sachet ones and store the opened sachet in the ref.
I rarely do this, with the exception of stuff like Soy sauce or Teriyaki sauce, which I will sometimes purchase in large bulk sizes from warehouse stores or restaurant distributors. The bottles themselves will get rather used looking, with the labels becoming all worn out and starting to peel off. I would be embarrassed to have guests over who see that and maybe think I've had those condiments in the fridge for years, when in reality that wouldn't be the case. The other thing I would be concerned about is the larger bulk size product going bad before I could use it all up. Once you open those containers and let air in, they're going to eventually go bad and expire themselves. When I worked as a server we had to take the ketchup bottles and empty them into other half empty ketchup bottles, to make them look full again. That always grossed me out considering all the customers who handled those ketchup bottles - who is to say someone didn't put something in them or mess with them somehow?
I worked as a server also and we were required to marry the bottles of ketsups as part of our side work every night. I used refills when the kids were smaller because the bottles were smaller and easier for them to handle. Now I don't think I do any refills of any items other than had soap bottles in the bathrooms.
I do the same with soap. I'll keep my soap dispenser and buy large jugs of soap and refill every month. It saves a lot of money. To save money I'll do the same laundry detergent and all purpose cleaners. You can save a lot when you buy in bulk or the large jugs of things and refill as you need. I can even do the same with soy sauce and pickles.
