how much per batch/bar?

[krissy]

i am doing the math on how much it costs me per batch/bar and am wondering if i am paying too much or if i am doing good etc? right now with my basic recipe and my basic FO cost i pay .98 per bar. is that good? mediocre? or too much?

what are you paying? (if you dont mind sharing) :wink:

 

[desarae19]

are you asking about how much to charge?

i would say you need to determine how much it costs you per ounce to make, then multiply that out by how many ounces your bar is. then go from there.

 

[jcandleattic]

i am doing the math on how much it costs me per batch/bar and am wondering if i am paying too much or if i am doing good etc? right now with my basic recipe and my basic FO cost i pay .98 per bar. is that good? mediocre? or too much?

what are you paying? (if you dont mind sharing) :wink:

I use Soapmaker and it calculates everything for me. (as long as I have my most current costs and inventory up to date.)
I don't mind sharing, but my information is at home. Once I get home I will def run a batch through and see the cost that I come up with.

I do know that my OO soap that I make a 5lb batch comes out to .09 cents per bar.

 

[Tegan]

Depends on the bar, and if it's a "test" batch or small batch for scent etc... My batches range anywhere from $.50 a bar to $1.68 a bar to make. My lip balms are only $0.21 each (including all packaging)....which I do feel a little guilty charging as much as I do for them, but I've not had anyone complain or blink an eye at the price. They help make up for loss in some of the other places.

 

[Sunny]

I know there was a discussion about this maybe a year ago or more... (not expecting you to find it but if you do there was some good info on there)

eta: umm, I found it. how funny, I'm the one who started it, LOL!

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/forum/vi ... st+per+bar

I think the lower end from that discussion was 20 or 30 cents? I know there was one soaper from this forum who does sell their bars for around $6 and their cost per bar was around 30 cents.

When I figured mine out it was around $1.00 - 1.25, but I don't buy anything in bulk really (I bought a 5 gal bucket of coconut but most everything else I get from the store, including lots of my EO), I use some more expensive ingredients when I feel like it, and I don't sell. So not so much a concern for me

If you are planning to sell I would think about buying in the largest bulk you can reasonably manage (that means obviously, what you have space for, and what you can use up fast enough) to save a bit more money.

 

[krissy]

i forgot that the price i mentioned includes labeling. without labeling, the bars are .48 cents each

thanks Sunny for the link... off to read it now

ok, i read it and it has exactly what i was looking for, lol, i even responded in that thread and had the same answer i do now :roll:

 

[Soapy Gurl]

Wow, I am spending to much.

 

[shockabooie]

Holy cows I can't believe how cheap you guys are making it! Buying in bulk must really help. I find I could do cheap too (even by not buying bulk) except for the EO or FO. Those are like THE most expensive thing, at least, to me.

 

[honor435]

I think mine are about 1.30, but I use, po, co, shea, castor, how do you make a bar for so cheap? 100% oo?

 

[jcandleattic]

I looked last night and my average cost per bar (naked, no packaging since I'm not selling at this point) is .58 a bar. This encompasses all of my recipes and is a calculated average.
Some of my recipe's are more than that but some are less. For example, my 100% OO bars are only .09 a bar and the recipe I use and tend to like the most is .65 a bar...

 

[green soap]

I looked last night and my average cost per bar (naked, no packaging since I'm not selling at this point) is .58 a bar. This encompasses all of my recipes and is a calculated average.
Some of my recipe's are more than that but some are less. For example, my 100% OO bars are only .09 a bar and the recipe I use and tend to like the most is .65 a bar...

.09 a bar? less than ten cents per bar? are you sure? perhaps you mean 90 cents? do you own an olive orchard and get the lye for free?....LOL.

I spend more than that on fragrance alone. I have actually not figured out my price per bar accurately yet. I can do it only for some soaps. Otherwise I'll have to figure the loss of oil when making herbal infusions, the cost of running the oven, these are hard to figure out. I can do 15% loss for the infused oil, need to scale that to the amount I use. I have not figured out how much to use for each color, my 'line of soaps' is still under construction. Most of my batches are ten bars, so this helps. I should do it for the soaps that do not use infusions, or too much of them.

I have been 'guesstimating' $1 per bar (average 3.5 oz) so I will report back after I calculate some of the easier ones, see how far I was on my guesstimation.

 

[jcandleattic]

.09 a bar? less than ten cents per bar? are you sure? perhaps you mean 90 cents? do you own an olive orchard and get the lye for free?....LOL.

I spend more than that on fragrance alone. I have actually not figured out my price per bar accurately yet. I can do it only for some soaps. Otherwise I'll have to figure the loss of oil when making herbal infusions, the cost of running the oven, these are hard to figure out. I can do 15% loss for the infused oil, need to scale that to the amount I use. I have not figured out how much to use for each color, my 'line of soaps' is still under construction. Most of my batches are ten bars, so this helps. I should do it for the soaps that do not use infusions, or too much of them.

I have been 'guesstimating' $1 per bar (average 3.5 oz) so I will report back after I calculate some of the easier ones, see how far I was on my guesstimation.

Quite sure.
My OO is decently inexpensive, I buy my lye in bulk and I don't scent my 100% OO soaps. If it's going to be a scented soap, it's going to be a blend of oils/butters. Also, Soapmaker is very accurate as long as I have all of my invoices input correctly and my quantities up to date. I wouldn't/couldn't live without it.
Once I hit the "make a batch" button, it calculates everything that goes into making that particular batch of soap - including packaging if I was to add any packaging to that particular batch. But as I said, I don't have packaging incorporated into any of my batches, as I'm not selling, and when I give bars to friends, they are also naked.
There's no guessing involved, as it's all calculated for me by the program I use.

 

[fiddletree]

Before packaging, my soaps run me about .88 euro cents per 100 g bar. AND that is buying ingredients in 20 kg amounts! I haven't calculated out how much a 100% OO soap would cost me, but it would be cheaper (though not 0.09 cent cheap! more like 0.20-0.30, probably). European prices are too high...