Food cost calculator?

[Jayv2251]

I currently offer knife sharpening at local Farmer's Markets. I just started doing this last August. This service is slowly gaining ground. Since I'm already selling at these markets, I thought, why not offer more products? Now I could easily start making knives for sale, but that requires a substantial investment in equipment that I don't have right now. 

But... I do love to cook and bake. What if I were to sell baked goods (under my state's cottage industry laws)? So I can cover my costs, yet stay competitive, I MUST know how much each recipe I decide to make is going to cost me. I don't need to track the cost of electricity or water, as those are included in my rent. (FYI, I have my landlord's blessing to do this, she smelled me making bread one day!) I do need to track my costs on major ingredients like flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. I took more time than I would want to spend on a regular basis, but I came up with a cost of $0.40 per loaf for flour alone. Does the Square Restaurant add-on do ingredient costs analysis? The same flour I use for making bread I can then use for cookies or even fresh noodles. so I would need to put in the volume of flour I bought and at what price and let the software handle the rest. Only I do most of my cooking using the metric system because I weigh my dry goods out. Sorry I'm rambling, but you get the idea... 

[GourmetOnWheels]

@Jayv2251 I always used a spreadsheet.

But what you need to keep in mind Flour Salt and Yeast are your food ingredients. Sugar does not belong in bread.

These three items, the bag for the bread and the stickers on the bag are all part of your food cost per loaf.

You add all these costs and divide that by 0.25 that gives you enough to pay your ingredients, water, gas or electricity and income

If a loaf cost you 1.25 to make with the bag and stickers you sell it for 5.00.

If the market can take a higher price for specialty bread you can sell a loaf even higher say like 7.00 or 8.00.

René

[chefsteve1]

Sugar doesn't belong in bread?? Then, how do sweeten Brioche, Challah, Pretzel, Hawaiian Bread?? What feeds your yeast? I agree, Italian, French, Sourdoughs, etc... usually don't contain sugar. But, really now?

[Jayv2251]

Thank you! Somehow we were pulled off topic while debating something unrelated. 

[Jayv2251]

I'm not sure what ingredients I use are important when I ask for a food cost calculator based on recipes that also track my ingredients including costs and inventory. Just for the record, I can think if 5 different recipes that require the use of sugar, so I'm sure where you're getting your information on...

[JARSPrice]

I don't have a suggestion for a food cost calculator, but here's how I do it: purchase your flour and figure out the cost per unit (ounces, grams, or whatever you measure your recipes in. Once you know the cost per unit you can apply that cost to any recipe. Just multiply the unit cost by the number of units used in a recipe. Do that for all your ingredients, add them up, add the cost of your packaging, then you have your recipe cost.