to not bake cakes for the school to sell for less than the ingredients cost me?

[ANTagony]

This am took DS1 to school teacher stopped me in corridor and said would I mind baking some cakes to be sold for children in need to the staff on Friday. She particularly requested Chelsea buns (I've made them and lots of other cakes for the school before). I have a lot on this week but said I'm sure I could rustle up something. Rearranged my week to fit in an extra batch of baking (already baking for PTA meeting Friday morning). Collected DS1 from school to be handed a notice saying cakes would be on sale in aid of children in need on Friday and would be a flat rate 10p each. I can't buy the ingredients for 10p each. I'm a single parent I have a younger son to and money is really tight. I don't object to helping out where I can but they are asking me to bake cakes which would cost over £1 in the local bakers,give them for free and then feel good about themselves (the teachers) for donating 10p to charity in return for something they couldn't get for any where near that in the shops. I feel really taken advantage of. I'd rather just give the ingredients money to children in need, then they'd win (make more money than if the school charge 10p per cake) and I'd save myself a lot of effort. Is this mad should I just wind my neck in.

If you absolutely have to make something, do flapjack. With cheap porridge oats. Kids will eat them with wild appreciation, I find.

Still works out at more than 10 bloody p a flapjack though, so your basic point very clearly stands.

10p is ridiculously stingy. When it comes to buying things to raise money for charity, it's not the actual value of the purchase that's important, it's the donation! Poppies can't cost more than 10p to make but I wouldn't dream of paying less than £1 for one. They're totally missing the point.

Can you not just ask them to be sold 'for a donation'? I'm sure very few people would contribute less than 10p, and may would contribute much more. Then it's not so much selling things for charity, but a reward for a donation.

YANBU at all!

I had this at my DS's school. I always baked cakes and one christmas was asked to make xmas biscuits with decoratiosn etc. i spent a day and half and a bit of money doing this and then they were sold for 10p each. i thought just the same as you 'I'd rather just have given you the money!'.

I was resentful but realised that the decision was mine and decided then to not make cakes anymore, or only when I really wanted to, I said no the next time, butmade a donation and bought others cakes.

If you start to feel resentful it's time to stop doing it.

If you've said yes this time, do it, but resolve to say no next time. No point sayng yes and being resentful.

I agree with Annthecat, if you have any sense of resentment, don't do it. Similarly with being on PTAs or other committees. Don't do it and don't feel guilty or resentful. There are always other ways of contributing time or money, you can pick and choose which suits your finances and lifestyle.

Tbh this is a problem with most home-made stuff. Parents often produce gorgeous hand-made craft items for our PTA and if we were to sell them at a price to reflect the cost of materials and time spent making them they would cost far more than something you could buy in a shop. Sadly mass-production, be it in a commercial bakery or a factory overseas, means that it is not economic to sell things like this commercially - you have to rely on people donating things and then selling them at less/no more than it would cost in a shop...

The more I read of this thread the more tight fisted those miserable teachers look, wanting cheap cakes indeed.

You can easily get 50p per cake out of people in staff rooms, or even 75p for something as yummy as a Chelsea bun. It saves them the walk to the bakery, after all.

If there was an emoticon for it I would now electronically spit on the subsidised chelsea buns while nobody was looking, to serve them right, but I bet you would all tell me off for that, probably rightly.

GM - I don't think anyone expects to sell the stuff as if based on a commercial basis - if I charged my hourly rate for a batch of say Chelsea Buns they may work out at £5-10 a go! The issue is that the selling price should reflect a reasonable worth of the goods being sold - a 10p CB is clearly taking the mick, a 10p fairy type cake is probably be OK. It would be good to get a range of possible costs and then agree somewhere in middle ish - you won't get everyone to agree but at least anyone selling has a clear concionsce about it.

lol Boffin....

GM...it is not the point that OP wants to see a "true" return for the cakes, just that she feels if she is spending time producing something in the name of charity, than those that benefit from yummy cakes (in this case), should not be tight fisted...and 10p is being tight....surely in the name of charity those teachers should be willing to part with a bit more money....

I would understand that for Kids the price might be cheaper, but for the teachers....etc...

Oh our cakes are 20p each and are sold to the children.

I always used to do a plate of cakes until my eldest told me they had "too many cakes" and threw plate loads into the bin (why not sell the surplus to parents at the end of the day?) I now send the children with 20p each and let someone else make them.

10p each is soooo cheap when I used to help out at my sons fetes at scool the cake n tea/coffee stall was always a good money maker I think 50p is still cheap and with a cuppa for 50/60p each its lovely at 10p each you'll get people buyin in bulk and selling them for £1 at the sun boot market . so NO YOU ARE DEF NBU

or P.s. you could ask that school supplies ingredients and you'll give your free time and yummie cakes x

ooh, could I please order 12 Chelsea buns, a Christmas cake, some flapjacks and some home-made croissants - let's say £2.50 the lot - plus I'll pay for delivery by tomorrow lunchtime. Aw, you can't say no, it's for charidee!
(the bit that would piss me off most is the specific order for fricking chelsea buns! The cheek!)

It boils down to the fact that

ANTagony will have donated £x to charity (cost of ingredients and electricty/gas costs, ignoring giving up her time to do it)

The teachers at her school will have purchased a bargain chelsea bun - they got a bargain in return for their 10p, they gave absolutely nothing to charity. This makes them actually profit from a charitable event and they should be made to feel ashamed of themselves. They clearly need some remedial lessons in a) maths b) economics and c) having a social conscience.

Please could all the people who purchase bargain cakes at cake sales events bear this in mind.

I might well buy the cakes (am truly a crap cook so tbh I always make a beeline for the home made produce stalls) but I always hand over sufficient money to cover the priced item and a donation on top if I think the cake is priced too cheaply.

I would make petit-four size buns and say "well you aksed me for 10p buns" or simply state that the price must be 50p each. Can you not use the a back icing pen to write "50p" on each bun instead of putting a cherry on top of all that white icing?

totally agree YANBU happens at our school too and if you take in bought cakes you should hear the comments some staff make. I feel I might as well hand over my purse it would be easier!

Absolutely SitDown, that's what bugs me. The purchasers are getting a ridiculous bargain at the expense of the cake maker.

Mabanana, that would be a bog off no

I am really quite tempted to go and scoff some flapjack now.

Love the 50p in the icing idea.

that should say "black" icing pen

Hilarious thread - YANBU!

Sitdownplease - can you explain to me how the OP is donating anything (save her time) to charity? As I said earlier on, her money is going to whoever sells her the ingredients, not to Children in Need.

Seems to me it's the charity and the OP who lose out, while the teachers all stuff their faces on cheap buns.

How about making the buns really badly, so they never ask you to make anything again? Curry powder and toothpaste as a secret ingredient?

I am sending you a virtual nut and curry muffin. If you are a teacher. please give 2p to Children in Need!

Midnightexpress: there is a place for you. It is called Pedant's Corner. You might like it there.