Sweet 493% return on investment in 45 minutes!

I went to Sobeys yesterday and noticed that quarts of strawberries were on sale for $3.99.  I decided to buy two and make some jam since my neighbour had invited me to 'help myself' to her rhubarb.  I love strawberry rhubarb jam.

It took about 45 minutes to chop the fruit, heat it up, add sugar, bottle it and do the canning and  in the end I got seven 250ml jars, one 125ml jar and about 200ml in a tupperware container which went right into the fridge.

In total about 2,075 ml of jam and this is what it cost me:

1. One package of no name pectin $0.99
2. Almost a full bag of sugar which I got on sale a few months ago $1.50
3. One and a half quarts of strawberries $5.99
4. 8 snap lids $0.80
5. 2 cups of chopped rhubarb- FREE

Total cost of production $9.28.  This jam will be enough for me and the kids for a year.

So what did I earn in my 45 minutes of toil?  Well I found an all-natural strawberry rhubarb jam at Sobeys for $4.19.  This is a 190ml jar so it works out to $2.21/100ml.

So if we use this retail value as the value for my jam, I've made $45.76 worth of jam for only $9.28.

That's a 493% yield.  Sweet.

Of course, one jar will go to the neighbour who donated the rhubarb but with these types of profits I can afford to be generous.

Enjoy the weekend.

-dave