How much for a slice of cake for school funds?

[Tiredofwhataboutery]

Sports day tomorrow, as usual request for baking have been made. There’s generally quite a lot of donations and I volunteered at the Christmas school fair and there was a lot left over. Local businesses also donate cake shop and bakery etc which is nice if you worried about hygiene. It’s £2 for a slice (not huge ) £2 for tea £1 for squash £1 for smaller cookies etc. I just think it’s too expensive it used to be half the price. Do you think it’s too much or is it reasonable?

It's too much l agree OP

50p for little cakes, £1 for big, fire sale at the end to get rid. It's tricky to be making much real profit over what anything is bought for from supermarkets.

Our local ice cream van gives a percentage of takings, which is a win all round; no volunteers, good quality, no price haggling nor leftovers. We should arrange one of the local coffee vans too, that's a great idea.

I think it’s more than fair, all those things cost more out and about.

I paid £9.00 for two small pieces of cake and two teas at a similar event recently. The customers need to be able to pay by card as well.

£5 per family seems very cheap!

Hot drinks £1
cake £2
squash 30p
little cakes/cookies £1/£1.50

YANBU our PTFA make £8k each Christmas and summer fair (400 kids in the school) from the stuff we all take in and then buy back. The PTFA hang around to make sure we're not giving any discounts or freebies, I'll be honest if a kid has 20p and a cute face I'll sneak them a cake. They have 5 figures in the account so it's not going to be spent on the kids before they leave. I think we've lost sight of the point

Forgot to say even if there is a lot raised one year it goes very quickly if there is a big purchase to fund. Our PTA are saving up for a new path from the classrooms to the playground. I expect it’ll be £5k at least. At one point the PTA were giving each class teacher a set amount each month to buy glue sticks etc, that may still happen in some schools. They also make a significant contribution to some school trips. People think the government funds everything but that’s not reality.

If the goal is to sell everything and make a profit then prices are too high in my opinion. 30p squash maximum, tea 50p and cake a pound

They still sell them!

At our school if we sold everything at such low prices then there would be huge queues, everything would sell within 10 minutes, and people would complain to the volunteers about both of the above, which would mean they’d be less likely to want to help out again.

It’s too much. At our school, cakes are 50p - £1 and tea would be £1 max.

It’s about not excluding people, whilst raising money.

£1-£1.50 for the cake, £1.50 for tea and a big bucket for donations (so people can pay more or put change in).

In my experience this raises far more than the extra you might get from over pricing the cake.

Cash only at ours. I’m going to be rummaging for forgotten change.

Theres a psychology to cake sales. You need to know your audience as expectations vary. Go to cheap people berate you (especially if they've made a fancy cake). Go too expensive nothing sells.

We are in Yorkshire. (And not a posh part). We do £2 for a fancy cake, £1 for simple cake (like a fairy cake with coloured icing) and 50p for smaller stuff. Its in clearly defined sections. (Plus a section of bought individually wrapped allergen friendly cakes).

Tea, coffee, bottled drinks, cans all £1

As for card payments... they are just too slow and take too much of a cut.

We sell cans and bottled water for £1, crisps for 50p, little cupcakes for 20p, bigger cakes 50p or £1, across all our events through the year. We never go over a pound for anything, including a strip of raffle tickets. The only thing that is over a pound is tickets to the Halloween disco which I think this year were £3 which included a disco squash some crisps and a popcorn cone to go home. At Christmas we do a Santa’s grotto as part of the school fair and tickets to see Santa at £3 and they get a selection box the school really go to town on the grotto. It’s absolutely amazing.