# Calculating Price Per Bar



## christinak (Mar 19, 2013)

I have NO IDEA how to do it......I'm really math impaired and have no clue how to break down the prices of my ingredients to figure out the price per bar.  Anyone want to explain it to me in Dummies terms? :Kitten Love:


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## Lindy (Mar 19, 2013)

Take the cost of your ingredients and break it down into ounces.  So let's say you buy 1 pound of lard for soap you are going to take the cost and divide it by 16.  Now multiply that by the number of ounces you used in your recipe.  You need to make sure you are measuring everything by weight when making soap.  I hope that made sense?

Of course I am simply too lazy and I bought a soapmaking program called SoapMaker 3 which calculates everything for me.  I bought it when I first started making soap and it was the best investment I could have made.  It's available in 2 options... http://www.soapmaker.ca/


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## christinak (Mar 19, 2013)

I've seen that software before...I wish I could afford it.  That looks awesome!  I want to tackle the issue of "can I make money doing this" so I must figure it out eventually, lol.


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## Lindy (Mar 19, 2013)

If you start with the lite version ($49 Canadian) I can promise you will never regret it.  I have pro, but I started out with the Lite version until I was ready to start selling and then I wanted more information.

You could also create a spreadsheet in Excel if you are good at that....


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## Genny (Mar 19, 2013)

I don't know if you've seen this, but this was helpful when I first started pricing
http://teachsoap.com/pricing-your-cp-soaps/


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## serfmunke (Mar 19, 2013)

I use excel but that is because I know how to use the equations plus I love excel, it excites me for some reason :grin:

Like Lindy said, you have to break the cost of the oils you bought down to ounces. Then you figure their price per ounce. Take your recipes and look at how many ounces you used of an oil, multiply that by oil's cost per ounce. Do that for each ingredient, then add it all up. That total would be your cost of goods. Then you should add labor and a mark up to cover over head. If I missed a step someone chime in. I have a three year old climbing on me and asking for food, how rude she is!


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## lsg (Mar 19, 2013)

Lindy said:


> If you start with the lite version ($49 Canadian) I can promise you will never regret it.  I have pro, but I started out with the Lite version until I was ready to start selling and then I wanted more information.
> 
> You could also create a spreadsheet in Excel if you are good at that....


 
I agree, I love my Soapmaker program.


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## Marilyna (Mar 19, 2013)

I don't have Soapmaker.  I use Excel, but you can easily do your calculations on a piece of paper.  

Be sure to include the shipping you paid in the cost of your supplies!  That is vital.

I don't include labor in the cost of my bars, but I multiply my materials costs by a good bit that more than pays for labor and overhead.  I once read in a post by a very successful Soapmaker that you should aim for 7-10 times your material costs (once you're buying in bulk).  I don't really know how achievable that is, and I certainly haven't!  I'll be at about 5 times cost when I buy in bulk.


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## houseofwool (Mar 19, 2013)

There is a link in previous thread to a spreadsheet that helps with all of the calculations.  I tried to do a quick search, but couldn't put my hands on the correct thread.

Ah-ha!  I found what I was looking for!  http://ziggurat.org/soap/calculators/


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## MaitriBB (Mar 19, 2013)

I use a simple spreadsheet technique where I plug in the amounts of each item as I order it, then it calculates how much it costs to use per batch.  Here's an example:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7RfteBTeRCdOEN6NWdYdU15ZEE/edit?usp=sharing

So here I plugged in the items used to make a 10-jar batch of lip balm.  I put in the jars, the lids, and the ingredients that I used to make it.  The last column (H) has a formula that calculates how much it costs for the batch.


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## Badger (Mar 19, 2013)

Maitri, I didn't have access to view the google doc, so I requested access to it, so if you have a strange request for access to it, it is me ;-)


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## christinak (Mar 19, 2013)

That's excellent, Maitri!  I don't know how to use excel and can't afford the soap program yet.  I just figured it out on paper though and it's not nearly as bad as I thought!  The Starbucks loaf comes out to $1.17 per bar and the Cherry Almond comes out to .55 per bar.  I did not include shipping though because I wasn't sure how to break it down.  I don't have packaging yet for my soap but when I do it will just be bands probably so it will be minimal.


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