Home bakers: what a dozen actually costs you, and what to charge. Free, no signup.
Presets are editable starting points for your market, not industry standards.
Overhead covers your cottage license, kitchen gear, mileage to the market, and anything else the batch itself does not.
Pick a product preset first: Cookies, Cupcakes, Brownies, or Bread loaf. Each fills batch ingredient cost, items per batch, packaging per item, and bake hours as editable starting points, not industry standards. Enter your numbers: target hourly pay ($20 default), monthly overhead ($60, which covers the cottage license, kitchen gear, and mileage), batches per month (8), and target profit margin percent (25). Overhead is spread per item as monthly overhead divided by batches times items per batch. Results show a line-item breakdown (ingredients, packaging, labor, overhead per item), true cost per item, and a recommended charge per item at cost-plus margin rounded up to the quarter, with the per-dozen price underneath. The gut check card grades what you would have charged per dozen: LOSING MONEY below true cost, UNDERCHARGING BY the dollar gap, or PRICED FAIRLY. The ingredients-only trap card shows the per-dozen price at 3x ingredient cost with zero labor, the classic home-baker mistake. The market day card adds booth fee per expected item sold to true cost for the real break-even, and the wholesale check grades a shop's per-item offer as BAD, THIN, or WORKS.
Example only, not typical pricing. Cookies preset at $20 per hour, $60 monthly overhead, 8 batches per month, 25 percent margin: ingredients $0.39 per item, packaging $0.25, labor $1.11, overhead $0.21, so true cost is $1.96 per item. The recommended charge is $1.96 x 1.25 = $2.45, rounded up to $2.50 per item, or $30.00 per dozen. The ingredients-only trap shows $14.00 per dozen at 3x ingredient cost. Market day with a $40 booth fee and 120 expected sales gives a $2.50 per item break-even. A $25 gut quote on the dozen fires UNDERCHARGING BY $5.00, since $30.00 x 0.9 = $27.00. A $1.50 wholesale offer fires BAD WHOLESALE, losing $0.46 on every unit against the $1.96 true cost.
**Q** Why does overhead matter for a home bakery?
The cottage license, extra equipment, and mileage to the market exist whether you bake or not. Spread across batches, $60 a month is about $0.21 per cookie here, small per item but real in aggregate.
**Q** What is the ingredients-only trap?
Pricing at 3x ingredient cost with zero labor. It is the classic home-baker mistake: at $14 a dozen versus a $23.50 true cost, you lose money on every dozen while thinking you are tripling your money.
**Q** How do I set the booth fee math for a market day?
Enter the booth fee and how many items you expect to sell. The tool adds fee per expected sale to true cost, so the break-even tells you the price below which you are working the market for free.
**Q** When does a wholesale offer work?
It works when the per-item offer clears your true cost with enough cushion for bad batches. Under true cost is a no; between cost and 15 percent over is THIN; above that, compare the per-unit margin to what you keep selling retail.
**Q** Is this pricing advice for my market?
No, it is a costing framework. Enter your own ingredient costs, hours, and market prices; the tool only shows what your numbers require you to charge.