I've been lucky. The big Lot's 2 miles from me has the jelly and pints for $6.50. I'm not sure of the quart price, however I will know shortly as I just ran out of quarts. They are out of lids though. I can walk to Walmart and they are well stocked with everything.

Prices can vary, and a 32 ounce jar IS a quart. There is also a 64 ounce jar (half gallon) but these are very hard to deal with in home canning due to their size. Sometimes, if you check local supermarkets, they will have clearance sales on the leftovers. I was able to get lids for 50 cents a box a couple of years ago, and bought all they had. Big Lots has about the best prices. If your buying a lot of jars, mabe case lots would be a better choice. Something like a pallet of 50 boxes. Hardware stores sell them, as mentioned, but they must also pass on to the customer any shipping costs they incur. Walmart, because of its popularity could have dozens of cases one day and be totally out the next. Quarts of Golden Harvest jars at Big Lots were %7.00. Usually I start looking for jars after the season winds down, as they don't go bad, and sometimes you an get lucky and get cases for less. The nearest Walmart here, have no jars or lids. They are a small Walmart and lack a lot of the popular items you usually only see in a super Walmart.

Big Lots has been the best place for me to get jars, $6.50 for jelly jars (half pints). Our local WalMart carries canning jars too, but they are the most expensive there! The jelly jars are 7.92 there. That's for the regular canning jars. My local grocery store carries them for a brief time and they are $7.50 there. There is a Mennonite grocery store and hour away from my house. They always have canning jars. The jelly jars are $7.50 there too.

Local $$ store chain has Golden Harvest pints for $5.95 and GH quarts for $6.95. Best price I have found down here.

Dave

The prices here are pretty much the same as several of the other posters with Dollar General having the $6.95 for Golden Harvest pints and quarts. They have been out of lids for about 2 months. We have Menard's Home Improvement Centers here and several months ago they had pint jars at $6.44 with a $2.00 mail-in rebate. I bought 2 boxes of them. Would have bought more, but DH had a fit and told me I already had hundreds of jars (a little bit of an inflated statement). I have been buying extra boxes of lids only for $1.22 each there as well as watching for their closeout sale. I, too, got close out sale lids at $ General several years ago for .50 each. So many places I go say not many people can anymore, but I think its the opposite. I tried to find a canner for my sister and every garage sale I went to that had had one said they'd already sold it then I went to the flea markets and they were gone or down to the ones no one would buy. All the $ General stores I could find were out of lids quite early in the season and I know they had plenty.

Korney19, you might try checking out garage sales and flea markets. I got about six dozen jars, some with rings, for $5 from a garage sale I stopped at about a month ago. We also have an indoor flea market about 20 miles from here that is open every day and I've hit the jackpot a couple of times there. Usually getting quite a few jars for a dollar that have been sitting out of immediate sight. The last time was a big bonanza with several really old but perfect jars that I'll never give away.

By the way, I did find a very nice, fairly new Presto 16 qt. canner for my sister, but had to pay $35 for it. One of the older flea market sellers knew I was looking for one and found one for me. Beats the price of a new one.

I will have to try more Dollar Generals, I only tried one.

I went to Big Lots today and bought 8oz jelly jars, pints, and standard quarts. They also had widemouth quarts for $10.

I have nothing against used jars but couldn't find any on craigslist, etc. Haven't done any garage sales. The only problem, for me, with used is finding lids plus the kitchen sink has low water pressure and hard to wash them so have been going with new.

Does anybody know if K-Mart has jars & how much $$?

Our Big Lots closed. Our Dollar stores don't have any. I search for the word CANNING in Craigslist and look for jars in our area, or in an area I'm planning on travelling to within a couple of days. Have had sporatic luck there. I also Garage Sale, Church Rummage Sale, and ask friends to return jars (and that, unfortunately, doesn't work too well!). We also don't gift as many jars as we once did, because we'd lose 4-5 dozen a year, and those were, of course, the half-pint and pint size jars which are more difficult to find. Plenty of Regular Mouth Quarts out there, though. I will pick up jars individually at 25 cents each or a bit more -- but hate to pay over 4 dollars for used jars without lids or rings. And I love it when the seller still has the older boxes.

We also wash all of our jars immediately upon purchase, or upon emptying, in our dishwasher set at STERILIZE, and once they've dried I cover up each one with Stretch-Tite cling wrap, so the mouth and sides of the jar and tightly covered. We store them this way and feel comfortable using them without cleaning or washing prior to filling. It's really nice to have clean jars always available!

Here is a link that might be useful: Stretch-Tite Cling Wrap's website

That's a great idea, Kathy! Wonder why I have never thought of that before! I will start doing that too! Always clean jars from now on!

Bought quarts at Big Lots today for $7. Pints and 8oz. were $6.50. Wide mouth Golden Harvest were $10.00. A bit high I thought. I bought 10 cases total. I canned 28 quarts of tomato juice cocktail Fri. and had to use wide mouth quarts. I'm restocked for now.

Thanks for the Stretch-Tite cling wrap hint, Kathy. You've helped another canner here.

The WalMart 20-some miles north of us is very expensive on their canning jars, however, we went into one 20-some miles southwest of us tonight and I saw where they have the pints for $6+ a case. Jelly jars were still nearly $8 and the quarts were $8 plus. Its rediculous how they vary on prices from store to store. The KMart I went to a couple of weeks ago said they didn't carry canning products any longer. One Target I went to at about the same time had nothing. Our local "country type" individually owned hardware store carries a lot, but are very expensive. Ace Hardware stores, which are in some of the larger cities carry canning products, but are kind of expensive on all. I did get a new seal for my really old Mirro canner from one of the Ace Hardwares and it was only $8+. Most places want a good bit more.

I buy and use quart jars almost exclusively. I have seen them in local wal mart for $10 for the wide mouth. That is getting expenisive.

I also try to pick them up used when I find them. I run them through the diswasher. I put them into boxes upside down on clean newspaper. With a dishwasher I do not mind washing them again. I can get a ton of jars into the dishwasher.

I also have big trouble getting the jars returned. Everyone always says they will give the jar back but only a few people do so.

Does anyone know of a good box to use to store the jars. I can get free boxes at the liquor stores but none seem to fit the quart jars that well. I need some kind of solution to the jar storage problem.

Admittedly, like everything else, the jars are always going up in price. Five years ago, they were under $7 for a case of Ball quarts. Rememeber the days about 35 years ago, when gas was just 29 cents for regular. A nickel candy bar was a decent desert, and you usually left the supermarket with several bags of groceries as well as plenty of change in your pocket.

I save my boxes and actually threw out several as I had more of them than jars..

Up here in New Hampshire, I'm paying $10 for a dozen pints and $12 for quarts. That includes rings and lids. Ball brand.

Pretty expensive, if you ask me.

I pay 4.15/case for 8oz, 6.85/case for 16oz this is for mason type jars without lids or bands. I can also get 12oz Mayo type jarsfor 5.10, 16 oz for 5.30. the mayo jars are round and not as heavy as the Mason type. Both types use standard lids and bands. 1 piece lids are .15 ea.

If you do buy a jar thats not designed for home canning, it may shatter easily. Most canning jars have thicker glass that has a been tempered to resist shattering with sudden temperature changes. Any mayo jar I ever used shattered before it was finished in the BWB.

Steve, thats a bit high. Suggest you find other sources for jars. On average a Ball case of quarts runs for about $9.00 tops right now. If you live near the Super Walmart in Salem NH, it may be a good place to find some at a cheaper cost. The Golden Harvest ones are a little less money too.

That's cheap for the 8oz... I paid $6.50.

$4.50 is cheap, however they didn't come with lids. My Walmart has a few jars left. They are totally out of lids. Big Lots has all sizes of jars and no lids. I think canning is coming back.

I get most of my jars at rummage, and estate sales.
I usually pick them up for a buck a dozen.
Granted they are usually dirty and I have to run them throught hte dishwasher.

I get most of my jars from a commercial bottle suplier, thats why no lids or bands on mine. I do use the one piece lids that I get from them on most of the jam that I use for gifts. Note: kathy in washington - if you are going to be in the Kent area I can give you directions to the suplier.
They do sell as little as 1 case.

We moved to WA this spring from NE and finding jars is much more difficult and expensive here. I was so spoiled! On any given week I could hit a farm auction or two (or 10) and pick up jars for nothing. Here the used ones are hard to come by or I just haven't found them yet. I really miss farm auctions! The BigLots here hasn't had any either but I do get a discount at Wal-Mart.

The other day, I took a load to the local "recycling center", which is a half-dozen dumpsters in the back of the court house parking lot, and looked in the glass bin. It was half full of canning jars. I thought really really hard about it, but my 9 yr old daughter was with me, and thats the sort of thing that might, later in life, be mis-interpreted, and they were quart jars anyway, of which I have more than enough.

Now if they were wide mouth pints, I would have lowered her into the bin and she would have handed me out a few dozen....:->.

Absolutely, david52! It's never too early to teach our children the value of Dumpster Diving for Jars! Isn't that what "local recycling centers" are for? And remember the story of the Little Red Hen? Unless your daughter learns that she has to work to help produce her food, she doesn't deserve any! Diving for Jars isn't exactly the same as planting, threshing, and grinding the wheat for flour, but it's pretty darn close.

One man's trash - another man's treasure. Funny how difficult it is to see someone throw out good canning jars.

Some people I give jars of goodies to, do toss out the jars. I keep remonding them, but they seem intent on tossing them. I guess I should start to add a surcharge to my canning I sell or give out, like $2.00 deposit on every empty canning jar they bring back. I do print the message of save the empty jars on all my canning labels.

I've never bought canning jars at a regular price. Some have come from garage sales, others from farm auctions. But most of my jars have been given to me. Spread the word that you need jars! As I empty jars I layer them in a brown paper grocery bag. I can get three layers of three quart jars in each bag. Seperate layers with several folded newspaper pages. Staple the bag shut and lable according to jar size/mouth size. These sacks then go back on my basement shelves - ready for the next year. I have sooo many jars - when I die my kids are going to have a fit! (I remember cleaning my grandma's basement after she died and wondering what in the world one woman needed with so many jars - NOW I KNOW!)

I bought some pint or half-pint jars at Menards early this year, with a rebate so they were only about $4/dozen. Past years I bought some for about $5/dz at Big Lots, mine came with lids and rings, although they were on too tight. That is before I knew I was going to score so big at my local recycling center. Years ago the lady who works there saw me taking canning jars out of the glass bin. She said she tried to stop people from putting them in there, but doesn't always see it in time. She saves them for me now. This year someone in our township was cleaning out a barn before knocking it down, brought in hundreds of canning jars.

We set up a bucket brigade for washing, a general scrubbing in one bucket, then a rinse in another, then another swoosh through a bucket of hot soapy water. Finally all the washed jars are rinsed off with a hose. The original water for washing came from the rain in the jars, and the second bucket was from dehumidifier water, so we conserved water.

We did that three different days (a LOT of jars) and after I was sick of that I twice put a bunch of them through the dishwasher. Have to do that just one more time, not a full load of jars ever, but many at one time. I only saved the pint jars and a few widemouth quarts, I freecycled most of the quart jars. I already have a gazillion of those from my mom and hubby's grandparents.

ksrogers said, "Any mayo jar I ever used shattered before it was finished in the BWB." I don't know what he is doing wrong, I BWB all the time and have NEVER had a mayo, spaghetti, or pickle jar break on me. A real canning jar broke this year on hubby, the bottom cracked apart somehow. Once after I dropped a canning jar into the canner TWICE it broke, but can't blame the jar for that. ksrogers, do you have a rack on the bottom of your canner, or do the jars sit right on the bottom of the kettle? Something in your set up must be odd or why would they break?

My friends are fairly good at giving jars back, the main loss is to people who don't live nearby. That is made up for by my cousins and aunts and so on who give me jars they aren't using anymore and some who even buy jars cheap at garage sales and give them to me. That is how I got my nice 4 oz. jars and 24 oz. straight jars, although I have since seen the 4 oz. jars in stores. (Great for baby food.)

Marcia

Yes, I do have a rack at the bottom and the jars carcked all up the side, not around the bottom. In fact, I even had a non canning jar break in my steam canner, even though the contents was boiling when the jars were filled.

I use old mayo jars too, still haven't broken one, and i dunno how many times through the BWB. Now they sell the mayo in plastic jars, so thats over with.

Ken, do you sing opera while you can?

Thinkin' of possible reasons for all that breakage......

Nope, nothing but steam and the clinking of metal from the canner lid. I had two of these thin glass mayo quart jars and used one in each batch. After about 10 minutes I heard a loud crack noise, and then the canner started to smell with the boiling contents from the broken jar leaking into the canners water base. I think it was tomato sauce. Yes, mayo is all in plastic now, as are some other things. I even saw a few 'mason' types that were actually plastic. The rest of the batch were regular canning jars and I have only had one break, but that was due to dropping it. I did find a crack in an empty one one too, up the side to the top, but tossed that one out.

Thanks for all the replies.

I was in Walmart yesterday picking up some Rx's and decided to take another look to see if they ever got any jars in... they had 1 case of Golden Harvest pints, but the sticker on the box was from something else that was $26.99, so I looked around and found someone doing inventory with a handheld scanner... he scanned the wrong sticker and said $26.99! I explained that that was the wrong sticker from some appliance, and to try the barcode on the box, and he did and said $24.46! I said it can't be, and he showed me the display and that said $6.69 24.46%, so maybe that's the markup or something.

Even at $6.69, they were cheaper at Big Lots. I had him scan a box of regular mouth lids and they were $1.41.

I put both back.

$15 per dozen, give or take a couple of $$ depending on size and retailer. That's when I can find 'em. At least five of my sources have either gone out of business or quit carrying canning supplies in the past three or four years. Ah, the price of suburban living where all the land is being occupied by McMansions.
Don't even ask about ring and flats.

I had the strangest thing happen yesterday. I had the whole spiel typed out to tell you all and got booted so just dropped the thing.
I went into Walmart to buy a roll of masking tape to use on my marking tables today at the Farmer"s Market.
Thought I'd cruise down the canning isle and see if they had restocked lids. I didn't need any but just wanted to check. To my surprise all the canning supplies were marked down with those big red and black stickers they use.
Quart and pint Ball jars were $5. Wide mouth and reg. were the same. Lids were $1. reg. and $1.50 wide mouth. The platinum wide mouth jars were $2.50 for the four pack. Ball salt $1. I bought 20 doz. of each size lid and 6 doz. of reg quarts and pints. The new freezer jam packs were $2. I bought 6 pks. I did leave a lot there but spent over $100. I got home thinking what a bargain. Very seldom do canning supplies go on sale here. This is a farming community. When I got home I realized I forgot the masking tape. So, after dinner I went back [it's just around the corner] and picked up the tape and went to check the canning isle and everything was back to the original price. Evidently someone marked things down in error. The blue enamel canner with rack was still $13. though.

Hahaha! Shirley, you in Springville? I'd think that store would have more canning stuff than up here in the city. I go to the Thruway location and sometimes to the Transit/Clarence location, though Thruway Mall is only 5 minutes away...

Maybe I will have to trade tomatoes & peppers & garlic for jars! I must have picked over 100 peppers yesterday but don't know what to do with them all, and that wasn't even including jalapenos! There must be that many more still on the plants! I will try Poppers and Billy Ogden's Peppers for a start, plus Stuffed Peppers (bells w/beef & rice.)

I have been having lots of problems with this site lately... clicking the Preview Message or Submit Message button and getting a blank screen...

Mark

Mark
My purchase was made at the McKinley Walmart. I live right across from ECC South. The Walmart will be closing as soon as the new super store is built at Brierwood, which was once South Shore Plaza and vacated many years ago. Springville is about 18 miles away. Nice Walmart there.

As I have mentioned, you must be lucky to see the store prices dropped as much as you mentioned. Thats how I got some lids for 50 cents a box, as the local supermarket had a few boxes marked down, just about this time of year. Every year about this time, I usually make the rounds of stores nearby, just to see what store as a clearance on the canning supplies. It costs them more to have these items take up shelf and floor space, so they must consider selling them fast to make space for the next wave of goods.

My local Wal-Mart just put their left over jars on clearance. I got a trunk full of Kerr quart size for 5 dollars a case, which I will use next year. Keep an eye out for deals..jars are getting expensive.

I haven't seen Kerr jars for sale anywhere in many years. I did buy some years ago in Canada.

Kerr isn't sold here in the US anymore, as its mstly now Ball or Golden Harvest. Kerr is now the same maker as Ball.