Thursday, December 9, 2010

Wii are in Business.

Many months ago I started making some granola bars. I posted the recipe here back in March. My husband started taking one to work. He often shares with his co workers and soon he was taking 3 or 4 in his lunch. Then someone got the idea to pay me to make them some granola bars. And our bar business got started. Earlier this Fall I quit making them. Even though I loved the cash that came in I just couldn't meet the demand and it was driving me insane to try to keep up with as many bars as people wanted to buy. So I just said "No" and didn't make them anymore.  Some people were buying 12 at a time and with multiple people each demanding numbers like that it was killing me to try to make these in bulk like that.

For Christmas this year we have decided to forgo individual gifts and get a Wii for the family. My kids agreed to this plan a little reluctantly but I think now they are rather excited to finally enter the world of video games. I have many misgivings about having video games in the house and I wont go into them all right now. In the end the pros outweighed the cons and now there is going to be a Wii and all that goes with it under the tree for us to enjoy.  Well, my kids now have this idea that we need games for it. I guess they think Wii Sports isn't enough. I would be happy to just have the sports or possibly the Wii Fit but I don't really want all the other games too. I don't want this to start ruling our lives. But Henry really wants Super Mario Brothers, Ian really wants a Lego game and Sophie... well Sophie isn't that exited about it at all, poor girl. I know she will have fun when she finally gets a chance to play.

Since we already spent so much on the system and a few extras like a router, a charger, and another set of controllers, we really don't have it in our budget to buy any more games to go with this system. So this is where the bars come in. The kids decided we should make and sell bars again so we can buy the games. They happily cut up dried apricots,  toasted oats, measured sugar and such in order to make a few batches of these tasty treats so my husband can sell them at work. He is a natural salesman so it isn't hard for him.

I need to work on presentation a bit I think. Right now they are just wrapped in wax paper and then sealed into plastic bags in batches of 6. I need to come up with a label or something.
Today he took over 60 bars to work and sold every one. We are only about half way there. Since I am mean and make the kids take out the cost of supplies from the cash that came home. Nuts and dried fruit isn't cheep so it has to be factored into the equation when deciding our profits.

So one more day of making and selling bars and hopefully we will have the cash to buy Super Mario or some other fun game. My kids should appreciate that game a little more since they had to do a little work to earn it.

2 comments:

Bibliophile said...

This is a great story! The fact that the children are actively engaged in earning their games is a terrific plus. They will enjoy playing the Wii much more since they have worked to buy the games they want. Those granola bars are scrumptious and I know why they are selling well.

Kodelle said...

I think that's a great idea. My girls are often given the chance to help out with extra chores for a little money (we're little, we deal in quarters) to save for a new paper doll book or Princess magazine. They get so excited doing the work, counting the money and finally picking out their prize. My oldest plays games on PBS kids but not much more yet. My husband loves video games so we have a couple of systems already. I'm waiting to see what happens when my really girls discover them.