The other thing about cost issues, is that apple butter (even good apple sauce) is best made either in the Fall (or the Apple Season in your area) or when you get a bunch cheap or free (like the batch I had).
An amazing number of people are happy to let you take apples for free from their yards (if they know you of course) because they may not have the time or be able bodied enough to pick from old trees that are on the property. Even people who do pick and use their apples may have a surplus that you can offer to buy or trade for (we often get them given to us by friends and neighbors but I live in the countryside).
Also, if you have even a postage stamp sized yard and own or long-term rent your home; even a small apple tree on dwarf root stock, can give you quite an amazing number of apples in a few years. If you live far to the North, crab apples make good apple butter as I discovered in Sweden, you may want to add extra sugar but it still works.
The rest of the time, look at it as a rather expensive but delicious treat and now you know what it costs when buying apples at just regular prices. Meanwhile, keep your eyes open for slightly aged or pockmarked apples in the mark down bin, because once you cut them up and ditch the bad bits; the apple butter still tastes the same. In fact, it is one thing traditionally made when the fresh picked apples were starting to go "off"...
expatriate Californian living in rural Ireland with husband, dogs, horses. garden and many, many cats
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