Ha! That got your attention didn't it!!!
Don't worry, I didn't eat 4 lbs of cookie dough :) I'm kidding around, but underneath it all I'm kind of stressed... and all over cookie dough!
My son started school on the 7th. Not only did we have to get used to him being in middle school and all the new things that come with that, we had to worry about this fundraiser for 6th grade camp that is due Monday, the 20th. WELL, I forgot the first few days, and only told my Mom and 2 of my brothers about it. But then Ray said don't worry about it anyway, his Mom can sell anything at work for sure. So she took it to sell last week, money due this Monday. She came over tonight and he reminded her to bring the paperwork back... she did. Empty. She forgot to sell the cookie dough!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!
I know it's not her fault, it's not like she did it on purpose or anything. But it sucks. So here we are Saturday night, and I have tomorrow to sell 15 4 LB buckets of cookie dough.... UGH. Everyone I know is poor, not to mention giving them less than a days notice. We were already a little stressed about what we have to buy for him to bring when he goes... now we will have to pay for the trip if we can't sell the cookies... Did I mention we have a shut off notice from the electric company in due in 9 days??? Ugh... I could go on, but I won't.
You know what? I feel a lot better just getting all that off my chest. Honestly, all of a sudden I feel much calmer... I will try my hardest to sell as much as I can tomorrow, and that's all I can do. Ray will bring it to work if he has to, and I'll bring it to school Monday after he gets out... it will all be ok. If we have to pay that's ok, we'll work it out!
Well, that's just how my luck is going lately, why am I even surprised? lol. I can say that this stress didn't make me binge or anything, and it didn't make me go out and buy cookies either :) I did have chips and cheese with my taco soup, that was because of deliciousness not stress ;) but I ok the rest of the day.
What I ate today:
Iced Coffee: (75) about 12 oz with 3 tbs liquid creamer
Breakfast: (90) Special K vanilla crisp bar, and the coffee
Lunch: (665) 1 1/2 cup leftover taco soup over chips and cheese, water
Iced coffee: (75)
Dinner: (460) 6 oz chicken, 1 cup red beans and rice, 1 cup ff skim milk
Total Water: 46 oz
Total Calories: 1365
I waited 10 minutes after dinner to see if I REALLY wanted that second plate, and of course I didn't :)
I had another cup of coffee today, the first I've had 2 in one day. I don't want to make it a habit, but my head ache went away soon after so that's good! I will try using a little less creamer, see how low I can get the calories and still love it.
Treadmill: 16 minutes/ .62 mile 7 minutes with 2 LB weights
Total days in a row: 40 Wooo Hooo! :)
I stepped it up a little to make sure I at least worked up a little sweat :) I had the weights for 7 minutes, and worked those arms! I figure, I'm on the treadmill in my own home, no one is watching... I might as well take advantage of it!!! So I worked it, I looked like those skinny women you see in the mall speed walking with there arms doing all the work lol. If felt good :)
My son was waiting for Saturday Night Live, but he fell asleep on the couch. So I might turn in at a descent time tonight. Ray has the morning off, so we'll see! If he doesn't have anything he wants to watch, and I can stay away from facebook, I have a good chance! lol :) Goodnight everyone!
HBD
2 days ago
Yes, that did get my attention. I dislike fundraisers for the various reasons you mention in your post. People are $$$ out and cannot afford all the fundraisers being thrown at them...argggh. Good idea about waiting the 10 minutes after dinner. That's what I need to do too. Give myself a chance to see if I'm still hungry - lol. Way to keep up the treadmill and best of luck with that dough.
ReplyDeleteLOL, you totally got my attention! It was such a great title! I'm sorry you are stressing. Those things, indeed, sound stressful, but I am really impressed that you separated your stress from your eating and more so that you have done 40 days on the treadmill!!!! So freaking awesome!!!! As to the stress, my favorite trick is to ask myself if I will remember this particular thing that's stressing me out a year from now. Usually, I know that I won't, and it helps put it in perspective. Good luck selling all that dough! Personally, i'd bake the dough into cookies and sell THOSE! Who can resist fresh-baked cookies?
ReplyDeleteI give the dough away....
ReplyDeletenever a shortage of dough-boys who want it!
Lala is right on. Turn the dough into cookies and sell those. Much more appealing than uncooked ingredients. What's more, you've added value and created a finished product that is ready to be enjoyed :)
ReplyDeleteI have no idea how much you're selling the dough for or how many cookies one bucket makes, but if people are low on cash, you can adjust the number of baked cookies in a batch. For example (I know nothing about cookie dough!), let's say that one bucket makes 50 cookies. If you struggle to sell one bucket (50 cookies), you could batch them up into packs of 10 and adjust the price accordingly.
Since this is a cost recovery exercise to pay for a trip we'll focus on just making the deadline. Calculate how much money you need to make to cover it, then divide that by the total number of cookies you can make. This will give you the rough "per cookie" price you need to ask for. Then multiply it by the batch size to get the "per pack" price.
Next, ROUND UP! Make your prices nice and rounded, preferably centered around your currency's bill denominations ($1,$5,$10...etc). If this means adjusting the batch size, so be it. In retail, it is common to use psychological tricks to sell like saying $2.99 instead of $3.00. DO NOT USE THESE tricks when selling informally or "cold calling" because you complicate the sale. The quicker you can make the transaction (easy numbers that do not require change or much thinking), the more likely people are to say yes and buy. Keep it simple and give them the path of least resistance. Remember, these people had no intention of buying cookies today, so you have to make it really simple if you want to make the sale.
Final tip, develop a little sales patter. A little one sentence sales pitch that states what you're selling but also WHY. But NOT in that order. Open with your son's trip and THEN say that you are selling freshly baked cookies. If you strike an emotional chord first, they are less likely to close you down. Finish up with the quantity and price and ask if they would like to buy some. If they say YES, ask how many (sneaky :). NEVER ask "would you like to buy a pack?". You've just closed yourself down to a single sale. Just keep it snappy. People are busy.
Smile, relax, and be polite. This is especially true when (yes when) you get a rejection. Thank them anyway :)
Wow what a ramble. I hope you get all those cookies sold, but feel free to give me a shout if you need some advice or a brainstorm. Good luck :)
Thank you all sooo much!!!
ReplyDeleteThe way the school did it is really so stupid, I don't even HAVE the cookie dough. I had to sell the cookie dough today (with an order form and nice pictures of the 13 different flavors) and the money is due in the morning. They go on the trip BEFORE they deliver me the cookie dough!!!
Isn't that all just so stupid?????? UGH!
BUT, I tried all day, posted it on facebook, even posted it on peoples walls LOL. (Ray told me I shouldn't, and that I was SPAMMING LOL) And tonight at about 9:00pm we hit the mark we needed!!! Wooo Hooo!
Thanks again for all your help and suggestions!
Mark, are you a sales person??? It sounds like you know EXACTLY what you are doing!!! If I ever need help with anything like this again I know who to call(or email)!!!
Thanks!!! :)
And Lala, that is a great suggestion on how to handle my stress better too. I bet I'll think of this a year from now just because of how rushed/ stressful/ crazy it was... but I'll probably be able to laugh about it then! :)
All in all I was stressed, but knew it would work out ok. Even if we couldn't sell them all, the price for the trip was VERY reasonable. We can't really afford it now with just using all of out money for the car and other crap coming up, but we would have been able to work it out. So even though I was stressed all day, I was also calm knowing it would all work out one way or another :)
Congrats on getting your cookie dough sold. I think it's cool FB helped you out. I haven't figured out how to sell on FB yet, but then I'm trying to sell horses but I'll bet it's possible.
ReplyDeleteLooking at your menu reminded me that Rocco DeSpirito (sp) was on Dr Oz last week and made what looked like a great dish that was only 500 calories. I guess he's got a book out of recipes that all fit his criteria of under 500 calories, simple to make and less than 8 ingredients but great flavor. I'm thinking I need to find one of those books. Then I nee to get busy and cook. LOL
Thanks for your kind comment on my heavy heavy post. I posted specifics on my private blog. If you need an invite, email so I can send.
That is exactly what I need, healthy but SIMPLE and taste good. :)
ReplyDeleteOh you are quite welcome, it was a very moving post. Thank you for the invite! And thanks for stopping by :)
I do think that Mark knows what he is talking about.
ReplyDelete