While the NeilMed packets of salt are really convenient – especially for kids – the cost adds up quickly.  I personally use a ziploc disposable container full of sea salt and a spoon for my neti pot and this is about as cheap as you can get.  I buy the sea salt bulk from Whole Foods or a similar grocery store.  I covered my neti pot routine in a previous post.  I tried using my sea salt for my kids in their kid-sized NeilMed bottles, but they seemed bothered by the sea salt and complained.  It seems harsher than the more balanced mix you get in the NeilMed packets.  I continued to buy the replacement pediatric packets for a while, but then one time my People’s Pharmacy was out of the refil packets.  I found a small canister of balanced salt specially packaged for nasal cleansing and tried that.  This was a very successful switch for me.  It is much cheaper than the equivalent NeilMed packets, it lasts longer, has no waste from the package material, and really has worked out well.  It comes with a little plastic scooper so it is easy to measure out the right amount of salt and easily scoop and pour it into the bottles.  Finally, when I ran out of salt in the container I intended to buy another one, but didn’t get around to it for a while.  In the meantime, I refilled their canister with some of my sea salt stash intending to still buy them a replacement.  Well, they haven’t complained and it doesn’t seem like they have noticed, so for now I’m just going to reuse the canister and refill it with my bulk super cheap sea salt!