mmmmMMM Monday!! Grape Jelly

Ok, I didn't start off wanting to make jelly, but after doing a freezer inventory, I set out trying to find something to make with the frozen grape juice concentrate that had been in the freezer awhile. We don't drink juice, so THAT was out.

Around the same time, I ran out of jelly. I used up the remainders of my husband's friend's gifted jelly, and while my blueberry preserves are YUMMY! they are a bit weird (to William) on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I did a bit of Google-ing, but then headed over to my old faithful, The Hillbilly Housewife. This website, although quite annoyingly filled with ads in stupid places, has a wealth of practical recipes and instructions. No fancy ingredients, nothing expensive, just basic, useful info.

So, here, she has a recipe for grape jelly, using grape juice. How simple!!!
Her recipe called for 3 cups of juice, and I had 6, so I just doubled the recipe.
I made about 12cs of grape jelly. I put one jar in the fridge, then processed the rest for shelf storage.

Here's the breakdown of the cost:

Juice (I think these are $2 but since I had it for a year, I'm gonna call it "free")
.00
Sugar 4lbs, 1.82, (4lbs of sugar is 9 .33c, so 8c was 1.60ish)
1.60
Pectin (sure-jell, $2.08 per box)
4.16
jars, rings, lids (dunno, I already had these..rings and jars are re-used, lids I buy on clearance...like .50/dz?)

so 5.66 for things I know for sure the price of...round up to $6, to include lids, maybe and fuel for cooking?

$6 for 12 cups,
.50 per cup of jelly!!

Now, I noticed at the store the jars of jelly are about $1 or so, for 2c-ish.
The ingredients were: Concord Grape Juice, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Fruit Pectin, Citric Acid, and Sodium Citrate.

so, my conclusion is that while I probably spent the same amount on my homemade jelly as opposed to buying it, I prefer the ingredients in mine. Nice and simple.
And it tastes and looks better, too. :) It actually tastes like grape!!