Pay Me

You all know how much I love to help and how happy it makes me to donate or do charity work through my baked goods. However, there are times when the work and the donation I make is actually more taxing than it would be if I just cut a check.

I did a last minute cake order the night before I left for Chicago last month. I didn't get to sleep and I nearly missed my flight because I was too busy working on this last minute cake. I came back, thinking this person had my money ready to go, but here we are in October and I have yet to be paid for this cake. It irks me. I can't tell you how MUCH it irks me because I actually ended up spending some last minute cash on ingredients for this damn cake.

The same week, I left work early, bought a ton of butter and other ingredients to crank out 150 cupcakes all in one shot. I negotiated a price of $1 per cupcake so that they can earn money reselling it and some of my costs would be covered. Once again, I'm sitting here two weeks after the event still not having been paid.

I know these people will pay me if I get very aggressive about it, but I can't tell you how unnerving it is to shake someone down for money they know they should have given me a long time ago. All in all, we're looking at about $200 here, and that's not a whole load of cash in the grand scheme of things, but it's a cell phone bill or a couple of credit card payments I can knock off my list of things sucking me dry.

It's times like these when I really hate working with friends or family. They are always the LAST people to pay me, and I almost always get screwed out of some type of monetary compensation.

Last year, I dropped a couple of hundred dollars on a huge Thanksgiving order I was banking on. A few days before the order, the person had a sudden death in his immediate family and had no choice but to cancel. Those are circumstances that can't be helped or complained about. Shit happens, and that last thing you would ever want to deal with is a sudden death. However, I was still out all the money I spent and had to hustle, cutting my prices, negotiating deals, and allowing credit accounts in order to make up the money I was potentially going to lose by overbuying due to this cancelled order.

In the end, I made out good. All the extra work my mom, my friends, and my family put in to help me pimp out my Thanksgiving Pies really pushed me over the top and I had one of my best seasons to date!! Let me also add that none of my close friends even bothered to try and order a pie from me, but fuck them. I made out well with my regular customers, as well as my new bunch.

This year, I want to cook Thanksgiving dinner. I haven't been able to do it in years because I've had my pie rush in the days leading to the big T-Day. Not hustling would mean little to no holiday shopping money. Thankfully, this year, I'm relieved of the burden of buying for boyfriends, fuck-buddies, families of said boyfriends or fuck buddies, and a whole slew of other people. Not that I didn't enjoy doing all that at the time, but I'm not a person who shows any restraint when it comes to presents and I was deep over my head the last couple of years. Another lesson learned.

Many artists I know often just make something when gift-giving time comes around. Yes, it's super-personal and such, but I've been the recipient of stock-pile art as gifts and that sort of takes the cherished moment out of it, if you know what I mean; especially when they forgot they gave it to you and mention that it was something they had laying around collecting dust in a closet for a couple of years. =[

Last year, I gave a couple of pies to a co-worker for her kids. She was going through a divorce and was asking me for some money-saving recipes so that the holiday season wouldn't seem so skimpy compared to years past. As a thank you, her daughters made me little friendship bracelets. They didn't cost much and are clearly the artwork of tiny creative hands, but I think the gesture was so moving. Kids these days are never taught to say thank you for anything. Even if I got nothing back, I know my co-worker was grateful for the pies, and she has been my biggest supporter at work since then. A little kindness goes a long way.

My closest  friends will get cookies or pies and a bottle of my "Cold Cocoa Sipper" which is a Bailey's-like chocolate/caramel creamy liquor that I discovered a recipe for last year. I tweaked it several times over, and I now feel like it's worthy of gifting to my best buds! I had a shot of a homemade Bailey's drink a few years ago, and it was really good. It prompted me to look up some recipes last year, and this is my favorite. Like I said, I tweaked it a little to make it a little more "Holiday", but I absolutely love it, and I think my friend's will, too!

I have a lot of things I want to do this year. I want to cut out a lot of the commercialism as possible with the store-bought crap that everyone is after, and I want to hand out things that I make with my own two hands. I think it says a lot when someone takes the time to make you something from their heart. That's not the kind of thing anyone can buy from just anywhere.

Yes, I make my spending money from my baked goods. I'm good at it. I'm not going to feel badly about that. But, I do a lot of good with my baking, too. And I'm not going to forget that, either.

With that being said, these fuckers really need to pay me my money!