What is the best way to price baked goods for a bake sale? How do you factor in your time with the ingredients for fancy. Time consuming spe

What are the best prices for a small bake sale?

Thanks to everyone who responded to this question.
I have learned a lot.

I totally agree with the comments above and know from years of participating in bake sales that there is a common conundrum that you may be experiencing -- realizing that it cost you $x to prepare something (say a batch of brownies cost you $10 in ingredients -- exclusive of time or increased utility costs) and if you cut the brownies the way you want in 9 lovely large pieces and sell them at the price you think makes sense -- $1/each -- your organization would actually be better off if you simply donated the money. Here's the thing: events like bake sales are good money raisers AND have additional, important, collateral benefits: they get the name of your group and their goal in front of the public (the local HS choir raising money for a competition trip) that can create additional revenue sources (individual donations that wouldn't have occurred otherwise) and creates teamwork among the members as they figure out how to run the bake sale, publicize it, ensure adequate goods, etc... So, if recognition that you aren't being reimbursed for your time is part of the concern, think about the other non-financial benefits and the overall experience will still make sense.

Here's another tip from a veteran of many bake sales: if your sale will go over a period of hours (say 4 hours, rather than just a school lunch break), price everything a little higher than you initially intended (maybe those fictitious brownies go for $2/each) and then have a "going out of business sale" for all remaining items in the last hour, cutting all prices in half. Second tip: price everything in whole dollar amounts to minimize change. Most banks won't take a big bag of change leaving you to go to Coinstar or similar and lose almost 10% of your earnings having your change counted.

Good luck!! Sometimes it really is the journey, not the destination. :)

If you have a retail bakery, you have to account for the cost of goods, labor and other overhead expenses (rent, phone, insurance....). Your donation to a bake sale/fundraiser for an organization is a donation, a gift, of all those factors, which you will not be reimbursed for. The above criteria and recommendations apply -- what will be best for the organization that benefits?

I actually used to organize bake sales for my sports team in university. We always found it was best to offer one price for everything with a deal for buying more -- 1 thing for $1, but 7 for $5. It's the easiest to do and encourages people to buy more.

That's a tough question! I don't really think there is a hard and fast rule to pricing bake sales. I'm assuming it's for some kind of cause? If so, I would price with that in mind -- even though it took a lot of time and effort, your main goal is to raise money, so you wouldn't want things to be so pricey they'd turn people away. Perhaps there are some others out there who are bake sale experts?

Hope that helps!