To price a jar of jam you add up its full cost first: the fruit, sugar and pectin by the batch, your time at an hourly rate, the jar, lid and label, and a share of overhead like rent and power. That's what one jar costs you. Then set the price so that, after card and selling fees, it leaves the margin you want: price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate). For an 8-ounce jar of peach jam that costs $5.83 to make, a 45% margin after 3% fees means $11.22, rounded up to $11.25. The jar, lid and label cost almost as much as the fruit, and fruit prices follow the season. Wholesale to a shop is a different price, set so it still covers the full cost with something left. In the example below, a Virginia home food maker prices its peach jam for the market and a shop.
The short version
- Full cost = ingredients a jar + your time + jar, lid and label + overhead.
- Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate).
- Count your time at a real hourly rate, even if you don't pay yourself yet.
- Count the jar, lid and label; they're a big share of the cost.
- Price fruit at the season's price, and buy at the peak.
- Check what wholesale leaves after full cost before saying yes.
- TaroStack costs each jar from its recipe and what each batch used. More below.
What goes into a jar's cost
| Part | How to count it |
|---|---|
| Ingredients | The batch's cost ÷ jars a batch |
| Your time | Hands-on minutes for the batch ÷ jars × your hourly rate |
| Jar, lid and label | Per jar |
| Overhead | Rent, power, tools, spread over the jars you make |
| Fees | Card and market fees as a share of the price |
Starting out with jam is in starting a jam business, and what the jar's label needs in jam labeling requirements.
An example: an 8-ounce jar of peach jam
Rappahannock Pantry, the made-up home food maker in Fredericksburg, Virginia, I use in these examples, cooks peach jam 24 jars at a time:
| Ingredient | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Peaches | 16 lb | $32.00 |
| Sugar | 10 lb | $8.00 |
| Pectin | 2 box | $6.00 |
| Lemon juice | $2.00 | |
| A batch | $48.00 |
| A jar | Cost |
|---|---|
| Ingredients, $48.00 ÷ 24 | $2.00 |
| Time, 150 minutes for the batch at $20 an hour ÷ 24 | $2.08 |
| Jar, lid and label | $1.35 |
| Overhead | $0.40 |
| Full cost | $5.83 |
At a 45% margin after 3% card fees, the price is $5.83 ÷ 0.52 = $11.22, so $11.25. It had been asking $9 at the market, which leaves $2.90; at $11.25 each jar leaves $5.08, so it settled on $11 for peach and kept $9 for the strawberry it makes from its own berries. A shop asked for jars at $6.50, which leaves $0.47 a jar after full cost: Virginia's home food exemption doesn't allow selling to stores, so that order waits for a licensed kitchen anyway. The jar, lid and label are $1.35 against $2.00 of fruit, sugar and pectin. When the jars outgrow the kitchen, the next step is in jam co-packer.
Get the calculator
Download the jam price calculator. One sheet: type the batch's ingredients, amounts and costs, the jars it makes, the hands-on minutes, the jar, lid and label and overhead, your hourly rate, card fees and the margin you want; the full cost, the price for your margin rounded up, and what a wholesale price and a test price leave fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The calculator prices a jar on paper. Over a summer of strawberries in June and peaches in August, each batch costs something different, and the shelf holds both.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack costs each jar from its recipe and from what each batch used.
Recipes by weight. Each jar is a recipe, with unit conversion from the case or sack to the gram.
True cost from the batch. Each batch takes ingredients at their real cost, from the deliveries they came from, so a price rise shows up in the next batch.
Price creep. A price-creep report per supplier shows which ingredient is quietly costing more.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What a jar costs this week | Last season's sheet | True cost from the batch |
| Which batch is on the shelf | Written on the lid | Lots with dates |
| An ingredient creeping up | Noticed at tax time | A price-creep report |
| Whether wholesale still pays | A guess | Margins on real cost |
Recipes, batches and true cost are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.