Re: [vox] Food & cake for this month's meeting

[G Fitzgerald <devnull@lugod.orMAPSg>]

I'll give my thoughts, for what they are worth, and if they are useful
to those planning. By no means a "dictate," I don't consider that my
role - in the last meeting or so, the membership made it clear they
trust Bill to spend responsibly.

The number of people drives the amount of food.
I'd guesstimate the number of people based on the extent of our 
adverstising. With the radio show, and other advertisements, I'd say
more than the usual number of 12 - 16 or so, but the probability is not a 
LOT more.

I'm guessing at prices here:

1) Large box cake (from store) 18x24 or so <= $30.00
2) Pizzas <= $55.00
Key: Costco pizzas are $9.99 for 18 inches, the best bang for the buck
I've seen anywhere, and they're pretty good, in mu opinion. Pizzas from
anywhere else will almost certainly end up costing $6 - $7 PER PIZZA,
and even the larges will be smaller 14 - 16 usually, than the Costco ones.
I'm assuming there is a Costco/Sam's Club/Winco/Wal-Mart which is 
open late enough (6:30 PM or so), and that, if necessary, someone has
a membership. I'd call a couple hours ahead of pickup if we're going to
get 5 as suggested below.

1 Veggie Costco Pizza = $10.00
1 Cheese Costco Pizza = $10.00
1 Combo Costco Pizza = $10.00
2 Pepperoni Costco Pizzas = $20.00
-----------------------------------------------------
Pizza Total = $55.00 (with tax, approx.)

3) Soda <= $25.00
I think 50 sodas should do it, 70 if you want to err on the side of caution.
Buying in bulk, I would think 50 cents per soda is doable.

4) Additional "big bang for buck" munchies <= $30.00
Two big bags of chips OR 3 - 4 boxes cookies.

All this adds up to:
1) $30
2) $50
3) $25
4) $30
--------------
$135.00

5 18-inch pizzas should be good for 5 or so people each, at least.
50 - 75 sodas should be plenty for a large number of people.
Some people will have cake, and eat less pizza.
Munchies (chips, cookies) serve a relatively large number of 
people at a low cost, and should ensure that, even in the 
(I would consider it unlikely, unless people know something I don't)
event that a large number of people show up, and we run short 
on pizza, everyone will have some food to munch on.

My own take would be that you could save quite a bit
(cookies can be about $6 for 30 at a grocery store) by using the
"big-box/bulk/cheap" places, as opposed to specialty bakeries.
I think it'd do just fine for the crowd we're expecting.

If people insisted on going to a specialty bakery, I'd ask 
(never hurts) if maybe they could cut us discount, as we're a 
non-profit social group - we could even offer to put out some of
their advertising materials/thank notice at our event.
They cut us a price break, we give them some free advertising.

That's just my (long-winded) take. :)

Thanks!

-- Greg

On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 8:37 AM, Bill Kendrick <nbs@sonic.net> wrote:

On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 06:21:21AM -0800, G Fitzgerald wrote:
>    As for the budget, I would (of course) recommend spending
>    as little as possible to cover the number of expected people.

Oh crap!  I'm supposed to know how many people we're expecting!? :)
Between 5 and 80?

-bill!

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