Lemonade stand- who buys supplies?

amother

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 12:58 am

My son wants to make a lemonade/food stand to raise $ for chai lifeline (to earn prizes). Who pays for the supplies? He is 6 and has no $ now at all. Do I ask him for some of his earnings back to pay for the food or do I pay for it? Wondering what parents do in these situations.

amother

Firethorn

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 1:03 am

You can either donate your supplies to chai lifeline and not pay yourself back or you can take your costs out of the money he receives. Its up to you. Personally, I would cover the costs as a donation but the choice is yours

amother

Brown

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 1:03 am

I personally would happily pay for it if my kids expressed such a desire. It's not easy to run a lemonade stand, and I'd feel that their time and energy was a sufficient investment.

For an older child or teen, I'd probably want them to be aware of the cost of materials and would either ask them to pay me back a portion with their earnings or by helping out.

I guess it depends how much knowing the real cost of business is a necessary part of their chinuch at this age.

Hashem_Yaazor

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 9:40 am

I'm happy to provide them the supplies as an investment in their learning to take initiative, learning to work for pay, learning how to be successful at their "business" with customer service techniques, attraction of customers, and figuring out what people want.

That's not an age where I'm trying to teach them the financials of how businesses operate.

Amarante

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 10:11 am

I am also not understanding the question.

He is using his time and energy to do something wonderful on many levels.

Maybe I am missing something but how expensive are supplies for a kid to sell lemonade.

My cousin and I once decided to sell cookies which people bought out of the kindness of their hearts because they were dreadful burned things. LOL

Our parents didn't charge us for the baking supplies or the electricity to run the ovens. LOL

amother

Gray

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 10:25 am

He's 6 years old, I think this will be an amazing learning experience. But he doesn't need a lesson in "Cost of Goods Sold" just yet! I'm SURE he'll figure that out someday.

SuperWify

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 10:26 am

Amarante wrote:

Our parents didn't charge us for the baking supplies or the electricity to run the ovens. LOL

Yes this.

amother

Azalea

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 10:28 am

He's six, I think I'd just pay for it. If he were 10 I'd have him pay for one or two of the really important items, just to have the experience and understanding of what earning money really looks like

amother

Orchid

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 10:38 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

If you take out the cost from the earnings he may have nothing left to give to Chai Lifeline and will feel like a failure.

Raisin

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 12:30 pm

Amarante wrote:

Our parents didn't charge us for the baking supplies or the electricity to run the ovens. LOL

I am guessing op is not very financially secure and the money it would cost would make a big dent in her budget. Lemons are not free, they cost about 50c each, you need approx 1 lemon per glass. Plus sugar which is cheaper. Ice cubes - if you dont have an expensive ice making freezer you need to buy those too. Cups.

amother

Orchid

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 12:34 pm

Raisin wrote:

Lemon juice is $4 per bottle and can make multiple pitchers of lemonade (a bottle contains juice of 20 lemons). Nobody uses fresh lemons for a stand. Ice is made with $2 ice trays filled with water the night before and the trays are something you have not bought for this purpose.

Raisin

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 12:37 pm

amother [ Orchid ] wrote:

I guess I am a food snob, and so are my kids, we only use fresh lemons!

Of course its much cheaper with premade juice

Amarante

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 12:39 pm

amother [ Orchid ] wrote:

I wasn't envisioning a "gourmet" lemonade stand with hand squeezed lemons.

How could a six year old even do that - cut and squeeze lemons and measure with the appropriate ingredients. That would be a nice project to make for dinner with the parent supervising and teaching.

I wasn't even elevating it to the level of bottled lemon juice - I assumed that it was going to be some kind of powdered lemonade mix and ice cubes from the freezer or just refrigerated water. No one buying lemonade from a kid is drinking it for the taste - honestly I would probably just give the kid the money if I passed his stand because I wouldn't be sure of how "clean" the lemonade actually was since most kids aren't sticklers for hygiene.

amother

Obsidian

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 2:24 pm

If you can afford (and you can use power or bottled lemon juice)
I would supply ingredients/cups…. At my expense.

You said he was doing this as a fundraiser for highway fine, not to make his own cash. Personally, I would also tell him that I would match whatever money he made. I figure all said and done, you will spend 20 bucks at the very very most, more likely seven between both ingredients and matching.

If he was older, like maybe 10, I would give him $10 seed money, and take him to the store, and let him use whatever he needed from the $10 to buy his supplies. I would not incur the cost of chessed and tzedaka on a child and I would not want him to see his endeavors as anything less than successful.

If you want, I think you can probably use your maaser money for the expenses.

amother

Bottlebrush

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 2:30 pm

amother [ Obsidian ] wrote:

Something tells me that a person asking who pays for the supplies isn't in a position to match. (Though it's a nice idea and I have done the same).

amother

Hibiscus

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 2:30 pm

Amarante wrote:

I saw a kid selling cold lemonade cans (like soda cans) and I thought that was genius! Although for sure much more of an expense.

amother

Mint

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 4:13 pm

Just mentioning this. Family member lived in Manhattan and her 7 and 4 yr. old were selling lemonade and cookies (on the sidewalk near their home with Mom's presence. ) for a fellow classmate that was ill and in the hospital for treatments. They wanted to buy him toys. They sold and it was so sweet. They were also told by the City to shut down the stand or they would need to pay the City. Sadly they only were able to sell for a couple weeks. They were so excited by it.

amother

Sun, Jul 10 2022, 7:46 pm

Oh we can afford to cover the cost of the supplies. I’m also planning on giving him money for a donation. I just didn’t know if parents try to teach the whole supplies cost money lesson at this point or not. And I guess the answer is not. Now that I really think about it you’re right he’s way too little and it would feel really crummy to be left with so little after paying for the supplies.

Thanks everyone!