The Blessings of Canning

This year the Lord has truly blessed our garden.  Dennis and I were talking and posed good question does it really save money, which got me to thinking what a great blog post.  First there is a cost when you are first starting, but after the first year you will have some things already for the next year.  When I was looking up some of the items you will need and I will post the cost of them here also.

The first year of canning you would need the following: (Many purchases were from Wal-mart)

a pressure cooker         $70.00
12 pc. quart jars             15.97
Pickling/Canning Salt     4.99
Canning Utensil Set       10.99
                                      101.95

So if I were just starting out this year since I have can about 80 quarts of green beans the cost would break down like this

a pressure cooker                   $70.00
12 pc. quart jars 7 x 15.97      111.79
Pickling/Canning Salt                4.99
Canning Utensil Set                 10.99
                                               197.77
So lets look at how much we really said.  If you go to Aldi's you are looking to spend $.48 per can of green beans.  Walmart's Great Value you are looking at $.68 per can.  It takes 2 cans to equal 1 quart. So if I have 80 quarts x 2 = 160 cans.  So Aldi's you are looking at $76.80 and $108.80 at Wal-mart. Looking at what I did this year and if it were my first year you I would not have saved money.   I would be in the hole $120.97 Aldi or $88.97 Walmart.  


BUT this was not my first year canning and I already had many of the supplies and canning jars are easy to find looking at thrift stores or I had many elderly people who had some in storage.  We had received many jars through friends.  So my cost this year looked like this.

Pickling/Canning Salt             $4.99
Lids and Rings   $5.00 x 2 = $10.00(I had some lids already so only needed 2 boxes and rings are reusable)  

I sent $14.99 in canning expenses.  Since we buy at Aldi's it would have been $76.80 and saved $61.81 

There is always a start up cost, but it pays off in the end.