I've learned a wonderful money saving trick for your kitchen/pantry. I will no longer buy my herbs at a store in a pre-packaged bottle. I buy them at the health food store near us for a lot less money. They are fresher... organic.. and amazingly cheap! In general I pay less than $1 to fill a regular tall spice jar. Bay leaves cost me $.15... fresh nutmeg? about the same. Today was a real surprise though... I needed vanilla which I hate buying because it's so darn expensive. I didn't feel like going to the regular store so I decided to see what they charge. Now I don't know about where you live, but here a 1oz bottle of real vanilla costs me about $7 at the grocery store. At the health food store it was $5.25 for 2oz of organic real vanilla! Yup.. that went into my cart really quick. I thought for sure it would cost $9 or more.