A dear friend informed me that she would be making homemade jelly this week and graciously invited me over to help. I can remember my mom canning when I was young, and I have dabbled in it myself, but the idea of making my own jelly is SO daunting- all that mess, and squeezing grapes and extracting liquid... no way! But then this friend, a true "domestic diva", told me that she would be making it out of juice rather than grapes- and I was intrigued! Juice? This was definitely worth learning about.

To my surprise, it was SO easy, not very messy, and FAST! Even better- it is frugal! There are other benefits as well:
-Knowing exactly what is in your food
-The joy of making it for your family
-Having your children help (my kids can't WAIT to do this!)
-Being able to use your coupons on juice to lower your cost even further

Would you like to hear how? I thought so.

Basic canning skills: (you can learn more about canning here)
-You need to have glass canning jars- this will be your biggest cost investment, but they are reusable, so that cost is easily recouped. They need to be clean and sanitized- you can use the dishwasher with the heated dry. My friend also puts her jars in the oven on 350 degrees until she is ready to use them.
-You need to get the lids for the jars- they should be the one-time self-sealing lids and rings. I believe that these are sold separately, but it has been a while since I have purchased them. All of this can be purchased at Walmart.
-The lids can be put in a pan of hot water until you are ready to use them. Making sure that your lids, jars, and liquid are all very hot is a great way to ensure that they will seal properly.

Grape Jelly recipe: (we doubled this, which you should easily be able to do with one bottle of juice and one bag of sugar)
-4 cups of 100% juice, no sugar added
-4 cups of sugar
-1 packet of pectin (found with canning supplies. Look inside the box for a coupon!)
*One batch makes 30 oz of jelly.

Using a large heavy pot, add pectin to juice and stir over high heat until completely dissolved. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil that cannot be stirred away, and then add sugar (you may need to reduce the heat to keep the mixture from boiling over). Keep stirring and bring back to a rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring the entire time, making sure that the sugar is dissolved and that the mixture is not "lumpy" or grainy. To check: using a cold spoon, dip into your jelly mixture and let cool for a minute. If it is a "gel" consistency, it is ready!

Reduce heat to low to keep it hot. Working one at a time, remove a hot jar from the oven (take care! These will be extremely hot! You can use special jar tongs, purchased with the other canning supplies, to help with this). Using a canning funnel (you can often get these for .99 at Kroger), ladle the hot liquid into the jars, leaving about an inch of space at the top of the jar. Wipe the rim of the jar- you don't want anything interfering with the seal and compromising your jelly! Using tongs, remove a sterilized lid from the hot water and place on top of your jar. Screw on a ring (remember that your jar is EXTREMELY hot!!) as tight as you can and set aside. Repeat for the rest of the jars. Set in a draft-free place and listen for the "pops" that indicate that your jar is sealed. You will be able to tell if a jar is sealed by looking at the middle of the lid- if it is slightly inverted rather than a slight bump, the jar has sealed! If it does not seal (wait about an hour to make sure), you can put it in a boiling water bath for 5-10 minutes, depending on jar size.

You will now need to wait for your jelly to set up properly- to become a solid rather than a liquid. This should happen within 24 hours, but if it has not set up within 2 weeks, you can reprocess it with more pectin (instructions for this should be included with your pectin).

That's it! We did 4 batches of jelly and had the kitchen cleaned in an hour and a half. (note: the apple jelly takes 5 cups of sugar per batch)

Once you have your equipment (jars, lids, etc), this can be a very cost-conscious way to make your own jelly! Be sure to buy everything on sale and to use coupons whenever possible.

Once you get the general instructions down, play around with different flavors of juice to make different flavors of jelly. If you use little jars, you can easily make gift baskets of jelly (and bake up some homemade bread to go along) for frugal and delicious Christmas gifts! Have fun!

To see other great tips for saving money every day, check out our Frugal Tips for Everyday Living section!
(thanks Robin for teaching me!)