Yes, baking is work.

[ladyjaneinmd]

A friend once asked me if I could make a christening gown out of her daughter's wedding gown, for her daughter's first baby. Well, as luck would have it, I did just this for my sister, so I know how to do it! I quoted her a price of $400. She said that she already took apart her daughter's wedding down, so I caved and said okay, so how about $250.
She never got back to me. I can only *imagine* how cheap she wanted this to be. It's a lot of work! HARD work.
I just don't understand people.

[ladyjaneinmd]

I sew. I make jewelry. I quilt. I've had so many people try to con/whine/guilt me into doing stuff for them for free/way too cheap. And do NOT get me started on the things people have tried to barter . . .

Grrrrrrrr.

One of my friends says that she always tells people, 'Sure, I'll sew for you, and while I'm sewing, you can come over to my house and cook and clean the whole time I'm sewing.'
Oddly enough, she doesn't hear much after that.

[workerbee222]

I had a woman show up with an antique gown. It has some really beautiful pleating/lace, something fancy down the center front.

Woman had possession of this gown, and wanted me to remove the beautiful portion from this fragile dress, *and design and construct an entirely new dress* using the portion removed from the old one, for her niece. Her pregnant niece. Then she mentioned she was on a budget.

I told her the best option for niece was for auntie to take her to Giant Wedding Retailer and buy a dress off the sale rack for $100. She thought $100 was an exorbitant price to pay for a wedding dress.

I don't know what the disconnect was in her mind, whether she had no idea that seamstresses made more than a buck or two an hour, or she thought that creating a dress as simple as throwing magic herbs on a fire to make a finished dress appear. She was surprised that even relatively inexpensive fabric would be $10 a yard.

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

I'll say this much: I'm getting my AP checks back a lot faster since I started handing out cake pops to the people with signing privileges. I have another check run coming up. Maybe I'll do sugar cookies this week.

[dalesys]

Yep, baking is work. Unless you're hip-checking a witch into the oven... That's Defense!

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

$150+costs of a display! That's it?! Hell, Mrs. TGK would have jump at that quote when she was planning our wedding Did Bridezilla expect you to do this for free or what?

Probably.

I did truffles for wedding favors, and those were 50 cents apiece for their standard flavors (preordered 2 months in advance), and I packaged them in favor boxes myself

I make elizabethan gowns for historical recreation by hand. *I* find it relaxing, and get a kick out of wearing something I make. A moderately simple court gown can start with $US 2500 in material alone [last one was velvet, satin and 2 ounces real no shit seed pearls as well as other decorative stuff. This doesn't count a stomacher, collars and cuffs with any blackwork, or accessories. Gown and sleeves.] If you add in the labor of some 300 to 400 hours of hand sewing, you are looking at around 5K for a finished gown. Then there is the chemise, corset, underskirts, bumroll.....it is a lot of work for one outfit. I rarely ever do a commission for anything other than medieval, renaissance is hardcore fancy for nobility. I can whip off servant to middle class elizabethan in about 100 hours and it is dead plain ...
https://imgur.com/bM17cXi

I haven’t even tried making an Elizabethan gown just because of material costs. 8 yards of jacquard doesn’t come cheap.

I bake on the side as well as a full time job. I came to an arrangement with my coworkers. They cough up some money ($5-$10) and I will bake cupcakes of any flavor of their choosing with the understanding that I will be using box cake mix and not from scratch (I find that most people can't tell the difference between from scratch and from a box). Everyone takes turns requesting stuff. It's working out pretty well for the past few years.

Thankfully my friends know that I only do one major cake (wedding or birthday) a year (compromise with my husband) and they have all respected it (thank God).

To me cupcakes are so much easier than cakes.

Cupcakes are miles easier! No leveling, you can pipe the icing right on top.

I use box cake too, though with butter instead of oil. And I make icing (Ermine icing seems to be more popular with adults than straight buttercream).

That’s a pretty neat way to help fund baking every week!

[morgana]

Yeah, even with an embroidery machine, fancy garb takes time . . .

[AccountingDrone]

Hobby sewing does, at least, give me an appreciation for what goes into making clothes. it's why I'm not sorry about dropping $500 on a ready-made corset, blouse, and skirt set at Ren Faire, or $200 on a leather hat with plumes.

... I really love that hat. I need to find more reasons to wear that hat.

I make elizabethan gowns for historical recreation by hand. *I* find it relaxing, and get a kick out of wearing something I make. A moderately simple court gown can start with $US 2500 in material alone [last one was velvet, satin and 2 ounces real no shit seed pearls as well as other decorative stuff. This doesn't count a stomacher, collars and cuffs with any blackwork, or accessories. Gown and sleeves.] If you add in the labor of some 300 to 400 hours of hand sewing, you are looking at around 5K for a finished gown. Then there is the chemise, corset, underskirts, bumroll.....it is a lot of work for one outfit. I rarely ever do a commission for anything other than medieval, renaissance is hardcore fancy for nobility. I can whip off servant to middle class elizabethan in about 100 hours and it is dead plain ...
https://imgur.com/bM17cXi

[taxguykarl]

50 to 100. And she was DEFINITELY trying to cheap out on me.....
CW wanted specific colors to match her wedding colors, of course.

$150+costs of a display! That's it?! Hell, Mrs. TGK would have jump at that quote when she was planning our wedding Did Bridezilla expect you to do this for free or what?

[mishakal908]

I bake on the side as well as a full time job. I came to an arrangement with my coworkers. They cough up some money ($5-$10) and I will bake cupcakes of any flavor of their choosing with the understanding that I will be using box cake mix and not from scratch (I find that most people can't tell the difference between from scratch and from a box). Everyone takes turns requesting stuff. It's working out pretty well for the past few years.

Thankfully my friends know that I only do one major cake (wedding or birthday) a year (compromise with my husband) and they have all respected it (thank God).

To me cupcakes are so much easier than cakes.

[morgana]

I sew. I make jewelry. I quilt. I've had so many people try to con/whine/guilt me into doing stuff for them for free/way too cheap. And do NOT get me started on the things people have tried to barter . . .

Grrrrrrrr.

[Sparklyturtle]

This sounds very close to those scenarios where somebody with, say, musical talent is asked to come to a party and play an instrument or sing "and we can't pay you, but it will give you exposure!"

No, you're not a professional baker, but that hardly means that what you are doing is not WORK. And you should be paid for your WORK.

A friend of ours is a former professional operatic baritone. When Turtleguy and I asked him to sing for our wedding, we told him we wanted to pay him, but he refused to take money from us and told us it was his wedding gift to us.

Edited to add: I posted this because our friend is constantly asked to sing at weddings, funerals, you name it, and he says it's amazing how people don't want to pay him, even if the function is far away and he has to pay for his own gas to get there, plus take time from his family for rehearsal.

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

That actually sounds reasonable to me. Less than I've seen at bakery cafes.
IMO Bridezilla is trying to cheap out on you. BTW, how many cake pops was she talking about?

50 to 100. And she was DEFINITELY trying to cheap out on me.

I looked up prices before I calculated supplies cost. The range was $1.50 to 2.50 depending on complexity of design. $1 per was for, like, an absolutely basic dip-only pop, no decoration and not customized.

CW wanted specific colors to match her wedding colors, of course.

I specified that my quote was pops only, no display included. I could make a display, but that's a separate project and would be it's own charge.

I hear you all! I'm a seamstress. I can't tell you the number of times someone has shown me a picture of an elaborate prom dress and said, 'You can make this for $50, right?'
Uh no, no I can't.

Oh, I know that one! I sew occasionally and have one dress in particular that I like wearing to work (grey linen with red piping. Looks way more complex than it is), and I shut down ANYONE who starts inquiring about sewing commissions. Even a basic dress takes me like 8 hours over a span of several weeks/months.

Hobby sewing does, at least, give me an appreciation for what goes into making clothes. it's why I'm not sorry about dropping $500 on a ready-made corset, blouse, and skirt set at Ren Faire, or $200 on a leather hat with plumes.

... I really love that hat. I need to find more reasons to wear that hat.

[earl colby pottinger]

AAARRRHHH!

Or anyone who does any sort of hobby that someone else finds of value. I raise Monarch Butterflies from seed (first you have to grow milkweed). I once had someone "ask" for a bunch that they could set free at their 1st wedding anniversary party. Of course, there was no offer of money (because I get them for free), or even a party invitation.

When someone is having a "special" day, of course everyone around wants to help make it perfect. How dare you want money for something you should be begging to give them for free so you can be a small part of their happiness?!?!

It does not have to be even special, they could be making money off your work and they still want it for free or a deep-deep discount.

Aside from programming I also design my own circuits and cases for my projects. I got so tired of not finding what I really wanted that I bought a 3D Printer just so I could get what I wanted in a case.

But of-course I have to spend time designing my custom circuits, spend time and money getting the parts and assembling them, and now spend a lot of time to design the right case design and then the time to print them.

Recently, a person running a store asked if it was possible solve a problem their customers were having. I suggested a solution, and pointed out what was needed to build it. He asked if I could build it, to which I answered yes but until I built one I don't know how much an unit would cost.

Now mind you I don't mind building an unit for free because I like to see what I can do - but the store's owner started to try and say I could build the units at a fixed price, a price he had already decided on.

I of-course refused.

There is no way I would commit to a fixed price for something I have not got all the costs and work-time on. Today, that store owner and I no longer speak to each other.

[taxguykarl]

$1.50 per cake pop.

That actually sounds reasonable to me. Less than I've seen at bakery cafes.
IMO Bridezilla is trying to cheap out on you. BTW, how many cake pops was she talking about?