My take. I have a big veggie garden and I have also always bought bigger cuts of meat on sale and cut up and froze into meal size portions. I tried a good food saver unit about 10 years ago and it lasted a year. Maybe I just had bad luck or maybe I used it a way more then your average Joe. Anyway since then I have found that if I take my portions and carefully wrap in saran wrap then seal in a ziplock bag it works just fine. I have had packages of frozen perch get buried and lost in the freezer sometimes for over a year and I know this because I date everything with a sharpie when it goes in the freezer. I find it, take it out and cook it up and it's just as good as stuff that has only been frozen for a couple of weeks. Wrap it in saran wrap carefully and squeeze out all the air and you will get zero freezer burn. I will never spend another dime on any type of vacuum sealer.