Mason Jar Fruit Cups - Simple, Easy, and Frugal!

There are some members of my family who will eat an entire fruit bowl in one sitting.  And, there are others who couldn't even tell you if we have a fruit bowl in the kitchen.  So, in an attempt to moderate portions for the fruit lovers, and to make fruit more easily visible and accessible to those who forget to eat fruit daily, I created these Mason Jar Fruit Cups.  

They're super simple really - so easy that I feel kinda odd writing a full post about them instead of just posting a pic on Facebook or Instagram.  But, nonetheless, here I am, typing away.  

Most of the fruit was from my Aldi trip today, so the majority of the prices are from that store.  I live and shop in the Orlando, Florida area, so prices will surely vary by geographic location, too.

Pineapple: $2.29

Bananas: $1.50 for the bag of 8.  I used 2 bananas, so that's $0.36. 

Kiwi: $1.89 (it was a bag of 6)

Blueberries: $1.99 (1 pint)

Strawberries: $1.39

Apples: $0.66 each, I used 3, so $1.98 (I had to google the average price of apples, since I had these on hand and coulnd't recall a price.)

Total invested:  $9.90 (not including tax)

I had a stash of pint sized jars on hand (more info below), but if you didn't have that already, you could add that as a one-time investment.  

I washed and sliced all the fruit.  I opted to eventually slice the strawberries, but you could put whole strawberries in the jars.  I wanted to keep it easier for my kids, so most of my fruit was cut pretty small for their little mouths.  

I lined it all up in order on the counter.  This made it really fast to assemble the jars once I got it all ready.

Side note here:  For years, I avoided buying pineapple because I couldn't figure out how to slice it.  I absolutely loved pineapple, but was too frugal to buy the pre-sliced in the deli section, and canned pineapple just isn't the same.  Then I found this gadget.  Y'all.  It's awesome.  Seriously, I will never pass up a pineapple again.  

I have a stash of mason jars in my garage.  I save them all and just stash them in my garage for days like this.  It's just one of those things I can't bear to purge at this point.  I pulled out all the pint sized jars, rings and lids I could find from this stash.  

So, just because they'd been in the garage for months, I gave them a good wash in the sink.  

I layered my fruit in this order:  

Pineapple

Apple

Kiwi

Strawberries

Blueberries

Bananas

I did this for a few reasons.  1) The apple is nestled between the two most citrus fruits, helping it not to brown.  2) The fruit ranges from hardness to softness (bottom to top).  This keeps my bananas from getting mushy and my blueberries from getting crushed.

After I made all of these, I realized I had watermelon in my fridge that I could have added, too.  Oh well.  Next time.  

This made 9 pint-sized jars.  I would have made more, but ran out of lids.  I did have a good sized bowl left over, so overall, I would say that this amount of fruit would have made 12 jars (if I'd had enough lids).  

So, for $9.90 invested / 12 jars = $0.82 per jar.  MUCH cheaper than the deli section!

I took the leftover fruit out on the patio and served it to my kids, who gobbled it up!