Canning is sometimes suggested as a frugal way to cut down on your food bills, but I have to tell you honestly that the upfront costs aren’t cheap.  Not at all.  It’s usually only in the longer term that you start saving money.  But I’ll share with you how I got started, and what the costs were.

Unless you have an older relative who gifts you with a canner and jars because they don’t need it anymore, you’ll need to buy all of your canning supplies.  Some people luck into that situation, but that wasn’t me.  :))  I bought the Presto 23 quart pressure canner new from Amazon, for $80, and had free shipping.  You can buy canners that are much pricier, but this one is effective and I don’t see the value in paying 3 times the price if this works well.  Then there’s the cost of the jars – each dozen costs about $ 6 – 8 new, depending on size, and if you plan to can a substantial amount, you’ll need a lot of jars.

Buying all of those jars new is very expensive, and I’ll share how I’ve managed to aquire a good stock of jars in the last two months at a relatively low cost.  Once you have the jars, you have them for good.  There are no further costs except for the purchase of lids, which are about 15 cents each, since they can’t be reused, so over time the money spent on jars is amortized and you can start to really save money by taking advantage of sales, free or reduced produce, etc. 

All of my jars have come from Craig’s List.  Most were in response to ads that were placed, and  I also utilized the ‘items wanted’ feature to request people who had jars contact me. 

My first jar purchase was from a lovely woman who was downsizing her jar collection because her sons were in college so she didn’t need to can as much food.  It was in PA, about a half hour beyond where I do my monthly shopping, so I scheduled it on the day I went shopping and it wasn’t much out of my way.  The Mapquest directions were confusing and I had trouble getting to her home, so I got there after she had left for an appointment, and unfortunately I didn’t get to meet her in person.  But she has helped me out with a couple of canning questions and has been a pleasure to be in touch with via email since then.  I bought around 6.5 dozen half gallon jars (these are the most expensive by far), 6.5 quart jars, and 4 dozen pint jars for $80. 

Then someone responded to my CL request and gave me 2 or 3 dozen brand new jelly jars.  I responded to an ad on CL a week later, and it turned out to be the same person who gave me the jelly jars (when you use CL, you email to a blind address, so you don’t know who you’re contacting until they contact you).  I was very happy to buy jars from him after his generosity to me.  He lived close to where my dh worked, so my husband picked them up and I didn’t get to meet him in person, either.  It was another $15 for 25 quart sized jars and 19 smaller jars, some still new in a sealed box. 

Then someone else offered me 1.5 dozen free jelly jars.  Dh picked those up for me also.  I had a couple of people offer me more jars who were too far away for it to be cost effective to drive to.  Then two weeks ago I bought another 129 quart sized jars (I think that’s how many there were…) – it was the night dh picked them up that the van broke down right afterwards – for $30.

Today I got a lot more jars (after telling dh last week that I wasn’t going to buy any more) – 34.5 dozen half pint jars, all new in the box with bands and lids (except 1.5 dozen didn’t have the lids).  Some women splurge on jewelry and new clothing, I splurge on things like this.  🙂  I paid $40 for the entire lot, which was an amazing deal.  It literally would have cost me more to buy a box with a dozen lids (1.81 at Walmart, less at my new online source) than it cost for each box of jars.  They were being sold by a large institution that bought them for a huge project, and were stacked in the closet, extras that were left over after the event.  The person who took over the position found a closet filled with boxes that she was happy to empty at one time by selling it all to me, and I was happy to be of service.  🙂  It was a true win-win for us both.  She even had a bunch of young teen volunteers load them into my van for me. 

So now I have approximately 84 – 90 1/2 gallon jars, 232 quarts, and 414 of pints/ half pints with a very few 1.5 pints.  My 9 year old thought I must have thousands, and was disappointed when I added all this up a minute ago and told him I only have 736 (I think I also have another dozen that I bought new a year or two ago that isn’t included in this numberso make it 748).  The total cost for all of the jars was $165, which averages out to about .22 cents a jar.  The average canner won’t be buying or using half gallon jars, and that was a big part of my cost, so you could easily subtract $50 from my total, and the total costs would be under $200 for the canner and all the jars.

By the way, I think in almost every one of these cases the prices were lowered for me.  None of them were listed at the price I shared with you. The first set was $120, and since I bought all of them, she dropped it to $80.  The next was $25, down to $15.  They were requesting $6 per dozen for the large lot of 129 that I bought, and they agreed to $30, which was 2.79 dozen.  Today’s purchase didn’t have a price in the ad, or other relevant details, and I had to follow up with three different people, which I think is more effort than most people would have been willing to spend (though it only took me 5 minutes or so by email and then one phone call).  I initially offered $100, thinking they were quart sized jars, which they accepted, but then I found out they were the half pint size and told her that I really didn’t want to pay more than $1 a dozen for that size (it’s not a size that’s of maximum value to me, all the others I got in that size were free).  The person I was in contact with called her supervisor to check my offer with her. She (was away for the day) told her they could take $45, I said I’d be okay with $40, and without hesitation she agreed.  You might think that I’m a big bargainer, but I’m really not.  I don’t bargain -I just tell them what I’m willing to pay, I try to be reasonable and fair in my offers, and if it works for them, then good.  If not, that’s okay, too.  I’ve found that most sellers don’t generally have a good idea of what new canning jars sell for, so they price their used jars too high. 

Canning is a valuable skill, and I look at it as a fun and productive hobby.  It can seem intimidating and foreign (not to mention expensive) to get started, but I think it’s really worth it.

Avivah