Julie in CA Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Here's what I currently do: Keep a price book on paper that includes each ingredient I use in my baking business. Using that list of what each ingredient costs, I've broken each item down into a per-ounce price. My recipes are generally written with the ingredients scaled per oz or gram. I go through each item in a recipe and calculate the cost of each ingredient using the price list & my previous calculations. Every few months I go through and re-check that my basic cost of ingredients has not changed dramatically. If it has, I re-calculate the per oz/gram cost, and then re-calculate the cost of each recipe. Is there software that would make this process easier? My price book is dog-eared and dirty, and I'd rather input the price of, say, cocoa powder $5/3lbs, and let the computer figure the per oz. price, and then I'd like to be able to easily input a recipe's ingredient amounts, and have the software tell me how much it's costing in ingredients for the recipe. Does this exist? How can I find it? My Google searches aren't turning up the right things, if it exists at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renee in NC Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 You could do this fairly easily in a spreadsheet OR you could go with an accounting program that will translate parts to whole and give you basic cost information. I would probably go with the Excel spreadsheet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 You could do this fairly easily in a spreadsheet OR you could go with an accounting program that will translate parts to whole and give you basic cost information. I would probably go with the Excel spreadsheet. :iagree: A simple spreadsheet would do this for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in CA Posted October 13, 2011 Author Share Posted October 13, 2011 I don't know how to do it. :blushing: I have Excel (I think!) but I've never used it. I was hoping for something idiot-proof. :001_huh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5of5 Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 I was hoping for something idiot-proof. :001_huh: Why don't you assign it as a job for one of your kids that are still at home? I'm assuming that they may be more computer-savvy. By 'it' I mean setting up a master spreadsheet that has all of the formulas, etc., built for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
********* Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Have one of your kids make an excel spreadsheet for yoy, if you don't want to learn how to do it. But I promise it's easy. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaxMom Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 I would totally keep it in a spreadsheet. You could use the master sheet as the ingredient list / price sheet, then keep the recipes in subordinate sheets, using the ingredients from the first sheet as menu items to select (for proper matching) and then have it calculate the price per recipe. All you'd have to do then is update the prices on the master sheet and the recipe costs would adjust. (you said spreadsheet. I got excited. :D ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in CA Posted October 13, 2011 Author Share Posted October 13, 2011 I would totally keep it in a spreadsheet. You could use the master sheet as the ingredient list / price sheet, then keep the recipes in subordinate sheets, using the ingredients from the first sheet as menu items to select (for proper matching) and then have it calculate the price per recipe. All you'd have to do then is update the prices on the master sheet and the recipe costs would adjust. (you said spreadsheet. I got excited. :D ) Funny! :D That does sound like what I want. Unbelievably (and sadly) two of my dc have taken a class in Computer Applications at the community college. They received A's and were the top students in their class. I still am pretty sure they wouldn't be able to do this for me. :banghead: (And yes, it's a sad, sad commentary on the quality of education at our CA community college. :001_huh:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Excel is not that hard. The trickiest part is starting the program.... really! Start small.... Open up Excel and you will get a new spreadsheet. Yippee!!!! It will have a grid of rows and columns. Each box is called a cell. Click in the top left-most "Cell" (A1) and type the name of your first ingredient. Press TAB to go to the cell next to it (B1) and type in the price number. Press ENTER to go to the next row (A2) or click on cell A2. Keep entering Ingredients and Prices. Save the spreadsheet and give it a name you can remember - like "Ingredient Prices". Now .... Go Google "Excel Tutorial" and you will find a bazillion free walkthrus on how to do formulas and spreadsheets and all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in CA Posted October 13, 2011 Author Share Posted October 13, 2011 Okay, so it's pretty obvious that the solution is me learning Excel. I'm sooo not excited, but I'll give it a try when I have a little more time. :001_smile: Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 You could ask on the high school board for a student who wanted to make you one for a fee...I would think a computer savvy teen would do it for somewhere between $20 and $50, you could ask for bids via PM. I used to be able to write something like that in 30 to 60 minutes, but am out of practice now and also do not have the time to do it, it would take me a whole day currently. Also, it would take an extra hour or so to make it so that a person who does not know how to use excel could use the thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mattw Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 (edited) My price book is dog-eared and dirty, and I'd rather input the price of, say, cocoa powder $5/3lbs, and let the computer figure the per oz. price, and then I'd like to be able to easily input a recipe's ingredient amounts, and have the software tell me how much it's costing in ingredients for the recipe. I'm a programmer and my wife pointed this thread out to me...this sounds like an interesting little app. Excel would definitely work, assuming you were willing to put in the effort to get it up and running. I'm not a fan of it personally, but I respect the people who do amazing (and sometimes horrible) things with spreadsheets... I'll probably implement this as a simple web application at first, perhaps eventually as a mobile app (I would imagine it'd be handy to have at the store, for those folks who have smart devices). It would also be interesting (and fairly easy) to track prices over time and generate simple charts and such. Give me a few days and check back here. :) Edited October 13, 2011 by mattw Added quote for context Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in CA Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 I'm a programmer and my wife pointed this thread out to me...this sounds like an interesting little app. Excel would definitely work, assuming you were willing to put in the effort to get it up and running. I'm not a fan of it personally, but I respect the people who do amazing (and sometimes horrible) things with spreadsheets... I'll probably implement this as a simple web application at first, perhaps eventually as a mobile app (I would imagine it'd be handy to have at the store, for those folks who have smart devices). It would also be interesting (and fairly easy) to track prices over time and generate simple charts and such. Give me a few days and check back here. :) That would be cool. :001_smile: Upon further Internet searching, I found a few things that were close, but not exactly what I'm looking for. I found stuff that would keep the price book, and allow tracking of food costs from various sources, but that's not exactly what I'm looking for. There were other things that included food costing, but they were also aimed at businesses *much* bigger than mine, so had lots of things I'd have no use for whatsoever. I don't need the thing to interface with major foodservice suppliers, for instance. Honestly, I think there could possibly be a market just among people who are trying to be frugal with their household menu planning. It would be great to put in the prices of all the grocery items you regularly buy, then put in your recipes, and know without a doubt which of the meals you routinely make are the most economical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homeschoolmom Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 I would totally keep it in a spreadsheet. You could use the master sheet as the ingredient list / price sheet, then keep the recipes in subordinate sheets, using the ingredients from the first sheet as menu items to select (for proper matching) and then have it calculate the price per recipe. All you'd have to do then is update the prices on the master sheet and the recipe costs would adjust. (you said spreadsheet. I got excited. :D ) Me too! I LOVE my spreadsheets. DH calls them my mathematical tetris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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