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I made a spreadsheet that does cost analysis on those that are considering starting reloading. This isn't the version that I based my purchasing decisions on, this is one I created just now to generalize it a bit and make it a bit more universal for others who might be interested.
You input your costs (Fixed and Variable) and it will calculate how much you save per cartridge (up to 4 calibers/recipes), when your break even point is (in number of cartridges). It also allows you to view the differences between buying commercial projectiles and casting your own (and automatically excludes fixed casting costs in this case).
Considerations:
- Assumes if you don't pay tax at sale time, you aren't claiming it on your state return (cough).
- Geared towards prospecting 'loaders, not those who already do
- Doesn't account for depreciation
- Doesn't account for your time
- Doesn't account for incidental costs (but if you calculate them manually you can add them as a fixed cost as long as it's not incurred per unit made).
- Assumes that your casting alloy will turn into projectiles with 100% efficiency
- Break even calculated if only one recipe is made
- All variable costs are only considered on a per unit basis. If you bought $10k worth of primers. You're out $10k dollars but the sheet only cares what that means per unit made. (If you bulk bought one variable component in excess compared to others your results may be skewed).
- Doesn't have a place to input brass. You'll need to make your own adjustments. For many, this can be considered a fixed costs as you can use a piece of brass indefinitely. For Rifle/extra hot pistol loads this may not be the case.
How to use:
- Orange fields require input, light blue calc'ed for you.
- Enter your Tax rate in the upper right
- If you don't have tax/shipping info but only a total, that works. Say "n" to tax and 0 for shipping. It just means it's harder to compare part sources.
- Contribution Margin (how much you save that will be applied towards recouping your fixed costs) is calculated vs Commercial ammo costs. Changes in retail ammo prices/taxes/shipping, etc. can have significant impact on your return quantities.
- You can use the multiple calibers fields to either compare different recipes for one caliber, or compare completely different cartridges and their respective payback quantities. If you make 50% of one and 50% of another, halve your break even point of each to find out how much you need to make of both to break even.
- Some example data preloaded to see what does what
*DISCLAIMER* - First draft of this. Good chance there will be errors in labeling or math. Don't make any purchasing decisions based on this until you've verified the outputs make sense.
Let me know if this is useful/any changes/tweaks needed.
*PREVIOUS VERSION HAD SOME ISSUES WITH TAX CALCULATION, USE 1.2 attached*
You input your costs (Fixed and Variable) and it will calculate how much you save per cartridge (up to 4 calibers/recipes), when your break even point is (in number of cartridges). It also allows you to view the differences between buying commercial projectiles and casting your own (and automatically excludes fixed casting costs in this case).
Considerations:
- Assumes if you don't pay tax at sale time, you aren't claiming it on your state return (cough).
- Geared towards prospecting 'loaders, not those who already do
- Doesn't account for depreciation
- Doesn't account for your time
- Doesn't account for incidental costs (but if you calculate them manually you can add them as a fixed cost as long as it's not incurred per unit made).
- Assumes that your casting alloy will turn into projectiles with 100% efficiency
- Break even calculated if only one recipe is made
- All variable costs are only considered on a per unit basis. If you bought $10k worth of primers. You're out $10k dollars but the sheet only cares what that means per unit made. (If you bulk bought one variable component in excess compared to others your results may be skewed).
- Doesn't have a place to input brass. You'll need to make your own adjustments. For many, this can be considered a fixed costs as you can use a piece of brass indefinitely. For Rifle/extra hot pistol loads this may not be the case.
How to use:
- Orange fields require input, light blue calc'ed for you.
- Enter your Tax rate in the upper right
- If you don't have tax/shipping info but only a total, that works. Say "n" to tax and 0 for shipping. It just means it's harder to compare part sources.
- Contribution Margin (how much you save that will be applied towards recouping your fixed costs) is calculated vs Commercial ammo costs. Changes in retail ammo prices/taxes/shipping, etc. can have significant impact on your return quantities.
- You can use the multiple calibers fields to either compare different recipes for one caliber, or compare completely different cartridges and their respective payback quantities. If you make 50% of one and 50% of another, halve your break even point of each to find out how much you need to make of both to break even.
- Some example data preloaded to see what does what
*DISCLAIMER* - First draft of this. Good chance there will be errors in labeling or math. Don't make any purchasing decisions based on this until you've verified the outputs make sense.
Let me know if this is useful/any changes/tweaks needed.
*PREVIOUS VERSION HAD SOME ISSUES WITH TAX CALCULATION, USE 1.2 attached*
) how to do something I hadn't used in years.
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