$2015 budgetary conundrum

i have a plain old smog era chevy 350 of questionable heritage. i know that it runs well enough that i drove the car it came in off the trailer and into the garage. i don't know anything else about it.

the deal with acquisition of said 350 goes like this.

3 years ago i bought my 66 rambler for $900 and drove it for 2 summers. i put about $100 and no sweat equity into it. last fall, in the hopes of getting a $2014 car together i traded it for the rotbox hacked up 2002 WRX with a 350 in it. when i didn't make $2014 due to so much hackitude on the car, i pulled the engine and sold the car for $900 and some of the extras that came with it for $150. which leaves me at $0 for personal cash outlay. i have a paper trail for this.

however, i do not quite feel right about claiming $0 for my engine even though that is my real life cash outlay for it. I was thinking of putting a FMV on it for the average of what i could find an equally smog era 350 for around here.

what say ye?

I don't think that engine was free. I think you earned that engine through trading.

So, I guess there are 2 ways to play it...

You can put the $900 parts car (+paper trail) in your budget, and recoup the $900. This would leave you with a $0 engine, but only $115 in remaining available recoup funds...

or...

You can put a FMV for the complete engine in your budget. This would retain the entire recoup amount for later.

Opt #1 is $0 in budget, but $900 used of recoup money.

Opt #2 is the FMV of the engine in the budget, and $0 used of recoup.

Note: I don't know what you are building, but if it came with an engine, Opt #2 is probably better. FMV the 350, then sell the engine that came with the car and recoup it.

My vote is that zero dollars is what you have in it so zero dollars is what you credit for.

If that makes you feel bad a purely nominal amount at most, old smog era 350s are worth scrap weight or close enough so $75 if that helps your conscience.

I couldn't find a running 350 here for less than 350. Take that for what it's worth.

Id go with svrex on the budget stuff.

SVreX wrote: I don't think that engine was free. I think you earned that engine through trading. So, I guess there are 2 ways to play it... You can put the $900 parts car (+paper trail) in your budget, and recoup the $900. This would leave you with a $0 engine, but only $115 in remaining available recoup funds... or... You can put a FMV for the complete engine in your budget. This would retain the entire recoup amount for later. Opt #1 is $0 in budget, but $900 used of recoup money. Opt #2 is the FMV of the engine in the budget, and $0 used of recoup. Note: I don't know what you are building, but if it came with an engine, Opt #2 is probably better. FMV the 350, then sell the engine that came with the car and recoup it.

The only stuff on the engine that came in it worth selling is ancillary, it's a 350 already with a spun main, bad intake gasket, and milky oil. Nothing else to get recouped on the car but a few bits of scrap, it's already all business.

In reply to patgizz:

I'd still keep the recoup budget available if I could.

It gives you the future option of buying a parts car and zeroing it out.

But I think either approach is legit.

I gotta disagree with KyAllroad. Zero is not what you have in that. No one offered you a running 350 for $0. It had a car attached, and was part of the sale.

If you begin the budgeting at the moment of aquiring the engine (and car), it's recoup.

If you begin the budgeting after the car was gone, it's a motor you had laying around your shop. It's FMV.

the overall intent was the WRX was to be the challenge car, but bailed upon further review, so i had already been keeping budget receipts at that point. so i guess i see that point. either way i'm not going to be close to going over, i believe.

without creating a thread, how are you guys valuing chunks of crap out of your squirreled away "i'll probably need that one day" stash, say for example a 15 year old used rust pitted flowmaster exhaust Y that was submerged in riverwater when your dad's barn flooded a couple years ago but you couldn't stomach throwing on the scrap pile because you paid $30 for and it's been on 3 trucks and you just knew you'd need to Y a couple 2.25" pipes into a single 3". there's no real market for such a piece to find FMV, but it's also not the $30 part you bought back in the day. maybe i'm over-thinking budget, but i am rather proud of myself for creating a spreadsheet for the 2nd time in my life, and would like to cover everything that was not on the car when i purchased it even if the value is $0 or scrap price or whatever.

It's about the story.

You just told a great story. That's worth Concourse points.

We all know that the value of that Y is less than $1 in scrap metal.

Make it up.

Stick $1 in your spreadsheet as a placeholder, highlight it in yellow (because it has a great story attached to it), and add a column in you spreadsheet for "Notes", make notes in the story.

Then make sure you tell that part of the story when you are explaining your car during the Concourse.

Even extra points if you've got pictures of it submerged in riverwater.

The mistake most people would make would be to not tell the story.

Yes, you are overthinking the budget.

But don't make the mistake of under thinking the Concourse.

Duly noted, thanks for the advice. For every year i intended to make it and did not either because car was junk, bought house, kid came, sold car, bought rental property, no travel $, or 2nd kid came, I'm thrashing now to get the car ready so i can get it out a couple times over the summer without just unleashing it untested in october and tend to overthink most things that don't have to do with actually putting hands on the car and getting it done. Overthink and SecondGuess are my middle names.

In reply to patgizz:

Just to double check, did you see my post about the Concourse story?

In reply to patgizz:

This statement reminds me why I don't want to get rid of extra parts unless its worth enough cash to make it worth the while

SVreX wrote: In reply to patgizz: Just to double check, did you see my post about the Concourse story?

i did.

for some reason most of my stuff ends up with a story behind it. maybe it's because of all the places i go, people i meet, or how i'm willing to do anything anytime for fun or some $. when my son was born the winter was particularly slow for business, so i used to take my little sonoma out 3 nights a week to pick up scrap after he and my wife went to sleep. I learned that winter that people throw away so much good stuff that needs recycled, reused, or donated. I picked up a brand new speedway motors 49-54 chevy power brake conversion pedal and bracket in the trash. I donated lots of kids stuff to the church that winter. I also learned that those steel security storm doors are an excellent source of free 1/2x1/2 and 1x2 steel tube. And even learned that people throw out slightly used exhaust pipes, milk crates full of unused automotive fluids, aluminum wheels with tires, and anything else that i have a garage full of to use on my vehicles.

i was at a guy's place buying a steering box and 4.8 shortblock and out of the blue he goes "i bet you can find a use for this stuff" and gives me a 67 camaro rear bumper and a new jegs wheel tub kit that got damaged in shipping so they sent him a new one. i'm the same way though, if i know someone can use something that i've been sitting on they can have it free or at least really cheap.