Mishloach Manos Costs

allrgymama

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 10:49 am

I am trying to get a varied idea of how much money people spend on an individual mishloach manos. I'm curious what the high-end and low-end might be on the site.

So, taking into account: packaging, food you buy or make, etc: how much does your average family/friends mishloach manos cost?

This is not for those store-bought mishloach manos that you buy for people you do business with when you need something professional. I'm talking about the stuff you give to family, friends and neighbors.

Also, please mention (if you don't mind) whether the time it takes to do homemade vs the time it takes to shop for store-bought was a factor in deciding what kind of MM you're making.

Last edited by allrgymama on Mon, Feb 04 2013, 1:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

Isramom8

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 12:51 pm

I bought bags for one shekel each, and a cutesy bright wearable fake tie to peek out from the inside for one shekel.

My plan is to buy approximately five or six sale nosh items to put inside.

Therefore I hope each regular MM will run me no more than 8 shekel.

This does not include "special" MMs for my machitainistes and a few other special cases.

gp2.0

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 1:11 pm

$2.85 this year. We like to include a mini vodka, without that it would be $1.50 each.

I include mini homemade Bundt cakes, some small candy, mini vodka, photo of DD with Purim design all in a cardboard cupcake box in a color/design that matches DD's costume.

allrgymama

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 1:20 pm

@Tova: I've clarified my original question. Sorry.

@gp2.0: Can I ask what the breakdown is for each item? I found my cupcake boxes (holds four) on sale for $1.25 a box, but factoring in two homemade cupcakes (too lazy to calculate, assuming $1.00 a piece, even though I'm sure must be less), a small milk (.50) and a small ice coffee ($1.70), I'm at a $5.45 total per MM.

MaBelleVie

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 1:27 pm

I spend about $2-3 on each and prefer to have a lot of less-fancy ones to give out than fewer fancier ones. The containers were $4/doz. I bought stuff to decorate the containers for about $3/dozen. I'm putting in all homemade food, and nothing with costly ingredients.

amother

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 1:46 pm

I keep it as low as possible, like homemade baked good (which I always get positive feedback for) with a banana on a hard sqyare plastc plate, seran wraped. prob a couple shekel each total. We want to give as much as possible to matanos l'evyonim.

lkwdmommy

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 2:37 pm

It's hard to figure the cost of the home made items, but I try to keep the packaging costs to a minimum. I feel that it all goes onto the garbage anyway, so why should I spend money that can be used for other good things just to impress some one for a few seconds?
I use a plastic (deli style) container for the salad (20 cents), a clear cellophane bag for the crackers (another 10 cents) and the cheapest shopping bag in the Purim section to put it all into (35-50 cents). I print my own stickers, add a bottle of (Shop Rite brand) water (12-15 cents) and it's done!

freidasima

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 2:42 pm

I don't know costs but I will give a homemade cake and something to drink to everyone. This year however we are only going to give around 10 mishloach manot so it's no big deal. I save shopping bags that we get during the year and give them in that so that's no cost.

mamaleh

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 3:13 pm

I haven't figured out what I'm doing this year yet but we generally try not to go above $3-4 each. I try to buy packaging really cheap (on clearence after Easter, x-mas or valentines) about 5-10 cents each so that gives me more $ to spend on contents.

zaq

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 3:28 pm

I regift shamelessly. But first I dismantle the parcels, shuffle the contents, add something small of my own, and repackage in containers from last year. That way there's no danger of anyone getting back the MM they sent to me.

gp2.0

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 4:21 pm

allrgymama wrote:

Well my cupcake boxes hold one and were $5/dozen. There's no way cupcakes cost $1 each lol, figure more like .25 each. If that. Depends on ingredients. You can approximate by cutting price of store bought cupcakes in half. If you regularly pay $24 for a dozen cupcakes then you can assume your cupcakes are $12 a dozen. Wink

A bag of candies was 2.50? I think. Vodkas are 1.35 each. Design photos are .55 each. And I guess like .30 per cake.

TranquilityAndPeace

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 4:50 pm

This thread just reminded me to order balloons for my MM! Here's photos from last year: http://helpellen.com/pump-a-pr.....manos

I ordered 100 balloons (I plan to give around 40, but some will pop during the process of blowing them, so it's good to have extras; and they only come in packages of 50, so I bought 2 packages), including shipping for $40 on balloons.com. Now, if I'd driven across town to Walmart to buy these stuffing balloons, would I have calculated the gas usage in the cost of the balloons?? (Without shipping, I paid just 31.80 for 100 balloons!)

Okay, so each balloon is about 32-40 cents. Plus, I'll buy some Simchas Purim ribbon to tie around the knot, so that will probably bring my packaging cost up another 10 cents or so.

I bought cute labels that have clowns holding balloons - 2.29 for a package of 24, so about 10 cents each. Last year I printed labels, but did not calculate the cost of the color ink in my printer!

I may get downtown (in order to buy candies for my kids' school) to a wholesale place where candies are about half the price that they are in regular stores, which will lower my cost. Otherwise, whatever an apple, a wafer, a bag of popcorn/chips, and a few candies cost... 1.50-2 dollars, I'd guess....

busydev

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 5:38 pm

the first year they were under $1 a piece (We were tight that year and only gave about 10). since then they are generally between $2-3 (gave around 35).

this year the bag is gonna be $0.31 each. have ribbon from last year. rest should easily be under $3 probably closer to $2.

we give double (or more) then we spend on mm to matanos levyonim.

m in Israel

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 5:49 pm

I spend between $1 and $1.50 on each. I send homemade cakes in small tins with clear plastic covers. The tins and covers are my biggest expense -- about 30 -- 40 cents each for the pair. Homemade cake is very cheap -- maybe 75 cents each (no, I'm not factoring in the time -- don't know how to calculate it!). Then I add a second item which varies from year to year, but is never expensive -- anywhere from 10 cents a piece to 50 cents a piece. Some years I just gave it like that, but recently I've been wrapping the whole thing in cellophane bags that I buy at Oriental Tradings, to make it look more festive. They are about 15 cents each -- regular cellophane would be cheaper, but these are so much easier/ quicker that it's worth it to me. Then there's a bit of ribbon, and the paper and ink I print the labels on.

For my kid's Rabbeim and some Rabbanim in the community we add a nice bottle of wine, so those are much more expensive.

Isramom8

Wed, Feb 06 2013, 10:24 am

Isramom8 wrote:

I bought everything today, and I'm going now to put together a sample MM. Total cost of each "regular" MM: about 9 shekel ($2.43).