The joys of cost accounting

I am not quite sure how to figure out what to charge for my first few “orders” (actually just requests from friends, but hey - it’s practice!). I obviously don’t buy ingredients at wholesale, so I made a price list of the ingredients I will need to use based on my favorite grocery store’s prices. Now, the tricky part. How many teaspoons of vanilla are in one small bottle? How many cups of flour are in the bag? How the heck do I factor in a teaspoon of salt when an ENTIRE package only costs $.46?

Luckily, I currently work for a start-up and our accounting chica is muy inteligente, so she and talked about spreadsheets and all sorts of fun stuff this morning. Next week, I am going to start my own spreadsheets and get all this crazy math stuff worked out so I can plug and chug in the future. I have a teensy confession…I’m REALLY excited to make spreadsheets. I secretly adore Excel. But please don’t tell Bill Gates; I still think he’s the devil.

I know I’m so extremely part-time at this, but if I’m serious about seeing this dream come true, I want to do it right from the beginning. For now, I’m obviously not doing this for profit - I just need to cover the ingredient costs. Once I see if I have a real chance at this, I’ll beef up my meager business plan and put it in writing. Then I’ll file for all the proper business tax ID shtuff, lease a kitchen and take it from there.

In the meantime, though, I’m going to keep learning, baking and researching. And, of course, posting the highlights and lowlights for all to see. Let’s hope the lowlights stay in my hair.

SassyCakes, OUT!