Yep, budget is just an imaginary line in the sand, just erase it and scratch in another one!
Now what else do I need?

 

The plan was to keep track of all that was being spent at first and then it started piling up and now it is just irrelevant. Oh well, there are a million worse things you could spend money on. What gauges did you decide on? have any pics of them yet. New parts are so exciting

 

Actually I keep track to just about every penny on builds, I like to try and stay on track. I will throw up pics of the gauges in the build thread once I have them, they are on the way

 

If you focus on a budget then you aren't focusing on the build. It needs what it needs, if you can make it with just your labor or if you need to spend money to do it - it is what it is. A budget is a whole other thing and it may dictate what your build will be, but I like to focus on getting the build done and I don't focus on the budget. As a matter of fact I never even had a budget, just what the build needed. And I am certainly not rich...
Just my two cents worth

 

Not in my case, I like trying to build to a budget. I love searching for that elusive used part or parting out cars to get what I need rather than catalog shopping, for me it is fun. In this case I just decided to go in a different direction than originally planned on a few things, so the old budget no longer applies. I dont cut corners, but there are plenty of places to save money if you want to.

 

I set my budget when I get paid, I put aside for the build what I don't need to live on and go from there. What could possibly go wrong?

 

It's one thing to have a budget if your are building , for resale only . Then the point is to make $ . If this is your hobby then , you have to expect to spend $ and not break even . If your hobby is golf you buy the clubs , ***** , bag , shoes , cart , join a course or pay green fees . You drive to the course spend 4-5 hours , have lunch and a couple of drinks and then drive home . All this cost $ . The total depends on how much time you spend per week , at your hobby . The same with fishing , how much would you spend buying a boat and trailer , a truck to pull it with , poles , tackle , gas for the boat , and everything else you need . My point is most of us can walk to our shops and spend as much time as we want working at our hobby . A $ 40,000 investment in your truck , at 2,000 hours of build time [ 100 weeks at 20 hours a week ] comes out to $20 an hour . Then at the end of the build lets say you sell the truck for $20,000 . Now you have reduced your per hour cost to $10 an hour . What other hobby can you have that only cost $10 per hour ?

 

I agree with your original comments. But I cannot for the life of me figure out this math.

Spending $40,000 and selling for a $20,000 loss somehow reduced your cost? I guess that's a positive way to look at losing money.

 

It goes to cost per hour of enjoying your hobby . If you invest $40.000 in your hobby , and you spend 2,000 hours enjoying it then your cost is $20 an hour . So if you sell your hobby for $20,000 , your cost per hour is now $10 an hour . If you play golf and you pay green's fees and rent a cart , your cost could be $80 a round , at 4 hours a round your cost would be $20 per hour .

 

A hobby for me is for relaxation, if I were building something knowing in the end I would be losing $20K I would not be very relaxed!

 

Isn't a budget just another tool to accomplish a goal and be satisfied you did something within those goals? If you go over you need to adjust other things. Some tools work better than others and we just need to find the one that works best in the situation you're in make the adjustment and move on. Just my warped two cents worth

 

OK, I get it. So your hobby only cost you $20,000. But you no longer have the hobby.

I guess you have 20 grand to start a new hobby.

 

Already adjusted, surfing for more parts

 

I keep a pretty tight budget. I have so far spent $19518 including paint. My goal was to keep it under $20k. So doing pretty good.

THe budget on my factory five roadster was $26k and I spent closer to $30k. SO I blew that one a little, but mostly on add ons and things I wanted to put in later.

It works for me to plan out everything ahead of time in as much detail as possible, probably bc I have been trained as a project manager for part of my employment.

I hear you on gauges though, they are one of the most expensive pieces I bought... paid $570 for new vintage gauges. They are pretty nice though.

 

I keep all of my receipts in the glove box so I can account for every penny I spend. However, I don't add them up until I'm done. That would scare the hell out of me and I would probably quit on the project. And, just in case my wife asks me how much I have in this "flavor of the month" I can honestly say I don't really know. If I had to have a budget number, I probably would never have started the project in the first place. I'm building my truck the way I want it and am not considering the sale price right now. After seeing some of the prices people are getting out of these old trucks, I think I am safe. There are some vehicles that I would really watch the dollars on, as I have said before my 1947 ****** would not bring $10,000, if I put $20,000 in it. Thanks for lettin' me ramble.