Is it cheaper to make or buy Cranberry Sauce?
Cranberry sauce is that beautiful red dish that is always served with Thanksgiving dinner. I have found that cranberry sauce is one of those foods that you absolutely love or cannot stand.
My son and I are in the group of people that love cranberry sauce. The sweetness and the tartness really break up the dense and hearty Thanksgiving meal.
This year the cost of cranberry sauce has definitely increased, so I wanted to find out if making cranberry yourself with fresh cranberries was cheaper than the canned stuff. Let’s find out!
How much does homemade cranberry sauce cost?
Thankfully making cranberry sauce at home is really easy and doesn’t take a lot of ingredients. All you have to do is put the orange juice in a sauce pan over medium heat. Once the OJ is hot, you add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
Then you add your fresh washed cranberries and continue to cook until they start to pop open. Remove the pan from heat and pour the mixture into a bowl. As the sauce cools, it will thicken! For full recipe, click here.
| Homemade Cranberry Sauce Ingredients | Cost |
| 12oz fresh cranberries | $2.18 |
| 1 cup white sugar | $0.30 |
| 1 cup orange juice | $0.34 |
| Total Cost of Homemade Cranberry Sauce | $2.82 |
| Makes 10 servings | Cost per Serving: $0.28 |
The total cost of handmade cranberry sauce came out to $2.82. I used prices from my local Walmart because they are the cheapest for me.
I did look at the prices of cranberries all over the US, and they typically run from $2-4 for a 12oz bag.
This recipe makes approximately 10 servings, so we can estimate that each serving costs about $0.28 for homemade cranberry sauce.
How much does cranberry sauce cost at the grocery store?
Let’s head to the store and check out the prices on already made cranberry sauce!
| Cranberry Sauce & Number of Servings | Store & Price | Cost per Serving |
| Stop & Shop Cranberry Sauce 8oz can, 3 servings | Stop & Shop, $1.99 | $0.66 |
| ShopRite whole cranberry sauce 14oz can, 6 servings | ShopRite, $1.76 | $0.29 |
| Wegmans cranberry sauce 14oz can, 6 servings | Wegmans, $1.99 | $0.33 |
| Ocean Spray cranberry sauce 14oz can, 6 servings | Walmart, $1.98 | $0.33 |
| Signature Select cranberry sauce 14oz can, 6 servings | Acme Market, $2.29 | $0.38 |
| Woodstock organic cranberry sauce 14oz can, 6 servings | Fairway, $4.85 | $0.80 |
| Urban Meadow 14oz can, 6 servings | Key Food, $2.69 | $0.44 |
| Simple Truth Organic Cranberry sauce 14oz, 6 servings | Kroger, $2.39 | $0.39 |
| Sprouts Organic Cranberry sauce 14oz can, 6 servings | Sprouts, $2.69 | $0.44 |
| Ocean Spray cranberry sauce 8oz can, 3 servings | Dollar Tree, $1.25 | $0.41 |
| Average Cost: $2.38 | Average Cost per Serving: $0.45 |
Most cranberry sauce comes in a can in either the 14oz size or the 8 oz size. We looked at 10 different brands with different sizes, and then calculated the price per serving.
We determined that the average cost of a can of cranberry sauce is about $2.38. The average cost per serving of canned cranberry sauce is about $0.45.
When you compare the cost per serving of $0.45 of store bought, it is definitely cheaper to make cranberry sauce at home. The cost per serving of homemade cranberry sauce was only $0.28!
Is homemade cranberry sauce worth it?
Now that we know that homemade cranberry sauce is so much cheaper per serving than store bought, we need to figure out if it is worth making.
The equipment and ingredients needed are quite minimal, and honestly it only takes about 20 minutes to make homemade cranberry sauce.
The most common concern I hear about homemade cranberry sauce is that they don’t like the cranberries whole, and they prefer the smooth blended version in the can.
We can totally fix this! All you have to do is take your cooked cranberry mixture and put it in a blender or food processor while it is still warm. Give it a few pulses and your mixture is now nice and smooth and not big chunks of cranberry!
You can also add extra spices to your mixture for some extra flavor by adding cinnamon, cloves, or allspice.
This cranberry sauce is so easy to make that you may find yourself wanting to make it at other times of year. Thankfully you don’t have to use fresh cranberries, you can actually use frozen cranberries all year around.
Pro Tip: try homemade cranberry sauce with pork chops or baked chicken and you will thank me later!
For more information about making versus buying check out “Is it Cheaper to make or buy Butter?” and “Is it Cheaper to make or buy Mashed Potatoes?“
