Home made Curry Puff aka karipap.

The ability to cook is one of God's blessings to me though not as commercially as Chef Wan or Chef Diva. This morning I felt like cooking my own 'karipaps' and I did. I made ten big karipaps, ate 3 of it and packed the rest for my sister who lives in Shah Alam. It took me a half hour to do the karipaps.

Let’s do the break even analysis of the 'karipaps' business. Hmmmm assuming labor cost (myself is free), flour RM2.00, salt and spices RM0.50, a can of sardine RM2.00, butter RM0.80; cooking oil RM1.00, gas etc RM1.00. Total variable costs = RM7.30 or RM0.73 per piece. I think the market value of my chunky karipaps is RM1.00 a piece hence I made gross profit of RM2.70 (RM10.00 - RM7.30) or RM0.27 per piece.

What if I decide to charge RM10.00 per half hour for my salary plus my other fixed costs, then I have to make 37 karipaps just to cover all of my costs. It calculates like this = RM10 (fixed costs) + RM0.73x37pieces (variable costs) = RM37.10 is my total costs for 37 pieces of karipaps that I can fetch for RM37.00 if I sell RM1.00 per piece. Mathematically, It will take nearly 2 hours for me to make 37 karipaps.

My conclusion, karipap business is not for me. Cheers for the karipap sellers and lovers all over Malaysia.