Feeding a Racing Hobby on Ten Dollars per Day

2013 was a year of great change in our household. Mrs Volvoclearinghouse and I picked up stakes and moved from Tigerville, South Carolina to Westminster, Maryland. I took a new job. We bought a farmhouse and 3 acres of land, with about 800 little barns, sheds, and other buildings. In late October, I found out that in 9 months I would likely become a father, and the wife, a mother.

The Tunachuckers, for the first time since we began racing in LeMons, didn't enter a single race. Our first LeMons car (a very worn 1966 Volvo Amazon) got dispatched to the great Racetrack in the Sky, and our current racer (the LTD Landau) awaits its plans for future glory. To feed my racing itch, I put a roll cage in a friend's LeMons car, raced with their team, and Rallycrossed a beleaguered '67 Volvo that I acquired for $650 from a dentist.

Early in 2013, wife and I decided to get a handle on household expenses and work off of a budget. We sold our house in SC, bought a cheaper house in MD, paid off about $25,000 worth of debt, and saved some cash. I cut the car count about in half, and have plans to reduce it again before the new family member comes along (which should be sometime in June, if all goes according to plan).

Inspired by this thread: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/1983-rx7-on-100-a-week/73736/page1/, I decided to take a whack at prioritizing spending on racing activities this year. My own version: Go racing on $10 per day. Some quick math tells me that allots me $3,650 for this year's share of Rallycrossing, LeMons hi-jinx, and whatever other 4 wheeled shenanigans I care to partake in. I'm going to start right off by saying that anything that I spent, bought, acquired, etc, before January 1 2014 does not count towards this budget. If I slap a $200 header on my car, that I just happened to have laying around, well, that's my good fortune. :-) But, by the same token, if I sell that same header for $100, I won't roll that cash back into the budget. (It'll probably get used to buy a nice dinner out for the two, soon to be three of us, anyway) Fair?

All right, let's play. 1/1/14 is nearly over, and I haven't spent a dime on racing. $10 in the bank!

I'm flattered! Budgeting like this has been really useful for me/my racing/my relationship with my wife. This should be a fun thread.

volvoclearinghouse wrote: In late October, I found out that in 9 months I would likely become a father, and the wife, a mother.

I find it mildly humorous that you felt the need to clarify that you would be a father and YOUR wife would be a mother. I suppose it is better than, "I'm going to be a daddy; don't tell the wife."
Of course you didn't specify that it is the same baby producing these two conditions but I'll go ahead and presume.

As far as the topic goes, Good luck on your budget experiment. I'm guessing local events and some safety equipment is already in hand or $3650 would be awful tight.

Suggestion: start running your own track days. You won't get rich, but you can run for free. Helps the budget quite a bit.

Keith Tanner wrote: Suggestion: start running your own track days. You won't get rich, but you can run for free. Helps the budget quite a bit.

there's already so many groups running in the region that summit and NJMP schedules are pretty full, with that being siad if you volunteer with the DC region solo 1/ HPDE program you get one day free for every 3 that you work, and they carry over from one year to the next.

mazdeuce wrote: I'm flattered! Budgeting like this has been really useful for me/my racing/my relationship with my wife. This should be a fun thread.

The wife was sitting with me on the couch last night as I typed this up...in between running loads of laundry up and down the stairs, folding clothes, and tending to the dog's evening potty ritual. I'm very fortunate that she's fairly supportive of my car hobby. She's a big fan of budgets, too.

That's close to the combined budget for my racing efforts...but you see how slowly I get things done because of it. Took 7 years to save up for the restomod on my Corolla.

That's still 300 bucks a month. My wife would kill me if I spend that per month right now, but she's stay at home and we are trying to pay down some debt. I spend way way less than that and still have fun. My budget is around 1.50 per day, but I supplement that money by buying/selling parts.

Race a go kart....

Yeesh, I spend way too much per month on race car stuff...

after i bought my 350z the economy crashed and i lost my job, don't know how i was able to keep that car lol.

Took public transport as much as I could to save on gas (chicago prices). Train was 2 blocks from my house which also has a connection to the EL and i walked to various short-time jobs from there. Saved tons of money.

kanaric wrote: Took public transport as much as I could to save on gas (chicago prices). Train was 2 blocks from my house which also has a connection to the EL and i walked to various short-time jobs from there. Saved tons of money.

Obviously, nothing happens in a vacuum, and this budget is part of a larger overall goal to pay down debt and save money while not living off of beans and water and keeping the thermostat at 52. I'm not Mister Money Mustache or Dave Ramsey.

There's a subway that I plan on using in lieu of driving all the way in to work that should save us $7/day just in gas (plus the mass transit expense is tax deductible). The company eliminated the parking subsidy for 2014, too, so "training it" will save us another 8 to 10 bucks per day for parking. I usually go out to eat on Fridays; I'm going to try to cut that back to once or twice/ month. And I need to get my bike back on the road.

In reply to DaveEstey:

+1 million

That's one of my goals for this year is to determine a realistic budget for track fun.

Hoping I'll get a good tax return this year (first time the wife and I are filing together and we refinanced the house) so that can take care of the new engine for the Miata.

I think that we all spend $TEXAS on car stuff, but that exact value, as absurd as it is to each of us (and our spouses, if applicable), the dollar amount varies wildly. For me, $1 per day is more appropriate, and that's $TEXAS.

Of course for me, sending kids to school, paying a 10 year mortgage, eating as well as possible and the like become more important.

Congrats on VCHkid.

Good idea. How are you tracking it? I've been thinking about doing something similar ($100/mo), although I haven't figured out how I would like to track the expenditures. Given that money will be piling up in an account/bank/spreadsheet/mattress for a long time until a large expenditure is made, I'd like to have it invested so at least it grows when I'm not touching it.

Welcome back to the area and congratulations :) As mentioned, you could volunteer/flag for track days to build up credit for free track time but if you do the math, the $/hour invested is poor. Perhaps you could use your skills and the space your property affords to turn your car hobby into a money maker on the side, with all profits from that going towards racing costs?

or buy alcoa stock before the 10th ;)

In reply to fidelity101:

haha you should know, Kevin!

I used to autocross many years ago and that got to be too expensive. I switched over to being a cyclist full time now and its a better bang for the buck hobby for me.

Johnboyjjb wrote: As far as the topic goes, Good luck on your budget experiment. I'm guessing local events and some safety equipment is already in hand or $3650 would be awful tight.

I've been doing LeMons for about 5 years now, and our team has amassed a general stockpile of Helmets, racing suits, and other safety paraphernalia. Some guys have bought their own equipment, too - I personally have my own helmet, fire retardant undies, and racing gloves (my hands are larger than most).

I'm also well stocked on oil filters for my Volvo.

Have you ever seen so much Mann?

Right now the plan is to enter the May CMP LeMons race with our LTD Landau, and I would also like to do as many SCCA Rallycross events in my region as possible. So, entry fees and car prep will be geared towards those two ends. I find R/C gives me a better bang for the buck than autocross, and I've no experience with HDPEs but I again suspect LeMons gives better B4B. (If someone wants to prove me wrong, I'll happily accept the challenge, though!) If there's cash left I know a few teams always looking for A&D at LeMons/ Chump.

The plan is to track it via a simple Excel spreadsheet. I'll make updates here after an event, major milestone in car prep, or whenever the mood strikes me.

January 8th, I have 80 bucks saved up in my virtual racing wallet, and already I hear the siren song of Craigslist ads tempting me...

http://easternshore.craigslist.org/pts/4239164996.html

Emailed the seller, we're currently playing a game of phone tag and I'm it. Wife gave green light. The only question now is, how much of my racing budget to I have to apply towards parts car purchases? My rationale is the cars sitting there as lumps of iron are as good as scrap value, so my only real "cost" is whatever I pay for them over that.

Right?

I just had an unrelated thought. Your kid will be a tunakid, too, as both of us were there at the genesis of the Tunachuckers. What are you going to call him or her? Tunakid #5? VCHkid? This complicates things.

As far as the topic, don't you already have a car that you're going to race? You have lots of cars. I don't understand how you can spend $500 of your $80 either, though. maybe I think too much like your wife. Is she a tunawife too, or a Miss VHC? Maybe I ought to change my name.

tuna55 wrote: I don't understand how you can spend $500 of your $80

This.

In reply to tuna55:

I recommend Chuckerkid#1. Chuckerwife.

Wait, maybe not.