I got free entry all weekend! That sounded kinda dirty...it's ok, it's junkyard related!

I know, I know, Parts acquired for free at junkyards that charge a gate fee must be budgeted at the cost of the gate fee with a receipt.

But what happens if the junkyard, that normally has an entry/gate fee, has a promotion for no entry fee for the weekend?  How do you budget any non charged auto parts?  And on that note...I was also unsuccessful at getting a receipt for paying nothing to get in!  So how do I budget any non charged auto parts in this situation?

Would a pic/screenshot from the advert/app work, if accompanied by the corresponding dated receipt from that promotions dates?

Asking for a friend!

I would think any proof of the promotion.  I'm a member at my yard and that gets me free entry for the year but I don't know any yard that gives a reciept on entry.

I was assumed that the $2 was for entry and not for the part so it was an applicable to challenge budget.

If I go to a swap meet at Carlisle and the entry to get into the meet is $12 and I purchase $8 worth of parts that I use on a challenge build I always assumed, and possibly wrongly so, that the challenge hit on the $8 worth of parts I bought was $8. 

I wasn't including the entry fee in my prices because there aren't any yards I goto anymore that don't charge to get in.

In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

Right except the rules state that if you get free parts in the junkyard they are to be budgeted at the cost of admission to the junkyard with receipt. 

In reply to Stampie (FS) :

That is what I was figuring, just looking for some confirmation.  Thanks Stampie!

In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

I believe you are doing things correctly, carry on!

This is specifically about any parts that you are not charged for, from the junkyard.

I totally get it now, I've never known of a junkyard that doesn't charge for parts. It sounds like an amazing mythical magical place. The best I can do is the 75 or $100 all you can carry or all you can fit in a cart specials on certain holidays. 

In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

My 28 Model A budget is going to be very detailed because when I grabbed an entire front or rear subframe they didn't charge for all the parts on it.  For example I got free front and rear antiroll bars, steering rack, half shafts, etc.  I've thought about going back and grabbing the same subframes and see if they charge for different parts and give me different freebies.  Then I can mix and match to get a totally free subframe assembly.

In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

My experiences have been similar to Stampie!  Like when I make a large number of purchases at once, or 1 large "assembly" of parts.  They often don't charge you for each and every part that they have a price for.  I try make the most of any sales or discounts with large purchases made on those specific occasions.  The example of mine, listed below, would be in purchasing an engine and transmission from a Honda CRV.  I had 20% off rewards points that I used on that days parts haul and wanted to make the most of it.

This day in the junkyard is the one with the highest number of non charged parts, that I can remember at least.  It is by no means a normal day in the junkyard for me, but I figured it is worth sharing the info here with you all.  Oh...and sorry for the book of info that follows!

First I removed the engine and transmission as a complete unit, not a single wire cut.  Attached to the engine was the complete engine harness with the ECU plugged into it, charge harness, starter, throttle cable, throttle by wire unit, exhaust manifold/coupler and engine mounts.  Attached to the transmission was the shifter cables and shift box, clutch slave and lines to and including the clutch master cylinder and reservoir, intermediate shaft, both CV axles and trans mounts.  I also removed and had the key and immobilizer ring as well as the rear differential, it's brackets and mounts and two 8" sections of of the front and rear ends of the driveshaft including the flanges and fasteners.  All of this was placed on the cart with the engine and trans my tools and a cooler.  I also had a Honda Element block bracket and its hardware on the cart as well.

So you are thinking to yourself...self, why did I just read all of this?  Well here is the breakdown from my receipt for my 8+ hour day in the junkyard listed below.

Engine - Fuel Injected $224.00 plus a $75.00 core

Transmission - $116.60 with a $30.00 core

Axle shaft FWD - $21.00 with a $9.00 core

Part total - $361.60

Cores - $114.00

Enviro Fee - $30.91

Tax - $32.93

Grand Totle - $539.44

Discounts - $90.40 - this was that 20% off rewards discount

Credit Card Payment - $539.44

I have pics of the CRV before starting that morning and during and after.  I have pics of the cart loaded with the parts listed above and headed to check out!  I also have pics of the entry fee receipt = $3.00.  Plus a pic of the list that I wrote up on the back of the Entry fee reciept of the parts that I was not charged for, again there were a number of parts that I was not charged for at check out on this day in the yard!  Usually it is just a couple small parts amoungst a large quantitiy of parts.

So all of the parts listed above were added to my purchase record/legal pad of too many parts purchases! 

Which leads me to another budgeting question, but I should probably start another budget question thread for that one later!

That is more than enough typing for this guy!

Sorry for writing a short book here, it seems to happen way too much when I get detailed!

Those "free" parts are part of the package price you paid for your assemblies on the cart.  Without the engine/trans purchase you would have none of it

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

Those "free" parts are part of the package price you paid for your assemblies on the cart.  Without the engine/trans purchase you would have none of it

Yeah, I agree, I'm not seeing what the free entry was used for. 

I mean, would the junkyard have let you walk out with something and charged nothing? I can see like putting a sensor in your pocket and walking out but that doesn't seem like something the junkyard would 'approve' of you doing, even on a 'full price entry' day. 

Also I'm jealous of your score. 8 hours is a lot of work but you got a heck of a deal. Great job!

Ok I buy an engine. I didn't get the heads free as they are part of the engine. 

My yard doesn't have a "front subframe complete". They have separate charges for what they call a knee (control arms plus knuckle), crossmember, steering rack, brake caliper, and so on. So if they miss the steering rack I got it free. 

My interpretation falls in line with Patrick as well. I know there is grey area in the "free parts acquired at the junkyard" rule, but the free, or gate priced, parts yous are claiming would not leave the yard free without the parts you did pay for.
In that vein, these parts are flirting with Robbie's previous concerns over inside deals which present themselves simply due to the nature of building cars under a budget, where we shop, or who we associate with. 
These parts can't really be claimed as "discounted" because there is no record of them or the discount. They seem closer to donations, based on the size of the pile you present at the register and the graciousness of the clerk.

In reply to gumby (Forum Supporter) :

You forget my mad flirting skills with the cashiers. 

 I understand what you are all saying!  Last years car included a ton of these non charged parts on my budget sheet.  For those I used my logic and made them each a portion of the entry fee.  The day I pulled the parts from the CRV I did pay the $3.00 entry fee.  So if there were 6 parts that were not charged and the entry fee was $3.00, then I assigned a $0.50 price to each of those 6 parts.

I also don't know for sure if that was correct either.  But if none of these non charged parts even need to be budgeted then that covers the accurate use of that portion too! 

So if they do not need to be added to the budget, do I still list these parts on the budget doc for the event?

I'm confused again and want to err on the side of caution, budgeting wise.  I know this years car can be done within budget and I'm more than happy to show each step of the way.  But on last years budget sheet...I had around 116 lines of parts listed and documented with copies of their receipts.  That equaled my second night of no sleep in a row on the Friday night of the event in the event hotel on my laptop and with my printer copier until I left for the drag race portion!

I'm trying not to do that again!!!

Personally I don't feel entry fee should be included except where pointed out by rule.  So free parts I would include it.  Not free I'd consider that just an admission fee to the greatest viewing zoo in the world.

Ok, so you buy an engine from someone, craigslist, forums, fb, whatever. You go over, look at the engine, agree on a price, pay the guy.

You chat about the challenge. You chat about race cars. He's a good guy. As you're loading up, you see a shifter on a shelf collecting dust. You say "are you selling that shifter too?" The guy says, if you can use it it's yours.

You paid for an engine, also got a free shifter. BUT, if you hadn't just bought the engine, the shifter wasn't free - you wouldn't likely have been able to get the shifter had you not bought the engine.

So really it's a package deal. Just document that you paid x price for the engine and shifter. If you use both on one challenge car, you're done. If you need to split between two builds, you need to somehow establish the value of the part you are using from the lot.

I don't think it's cool to say you bought an engine for an unrelated project and they threw in a free shifter so you can use the shifter alone in a challenge budget for free.

I see these "unreceipted" parts from the junkyard the same way. Wouldn't have been free by themselves, so they are part of the parts lot. No?

It might be worth noting that the junkyard entry fee thing came from a line that used to read something about "pocketed parts that you didn't otherwise pay for" but tom changed it after it was pointed out that it looked like the rules encouraged stealing from junkyards in order to benefit your challenge car.

I believe the rule was always there for the random bolt or light bulb or vacuum tee or fuse that you see and toss in your toolbox on your way out, and really if you plopped them down on the cashiers desk by themselves you'd get the "don't waste my time get out of here" look. Especially at the $2 entry fee yards. So you could easily budget for a handful of random junk. 

I don't think the rule was intended for you to budget a $2 sway bar because you bought a cross member for an unrelated project and the yard didn't include "sway bar" on the receipt.

Thank you for all of the responses!  I do appreciate your time on my questions!