Monday, May 6, 2013

Saving $100 a Month by Mowing Ourselves

I am starting to smell a theme this year ha ha, one that states, we will spend money on items that in return will save us money or make us money!

This week it was time to mow the yard, so we purchased a mower, not a fancy riding one or anything like that, but just a decent push mower with a grass catcher on it. The grass catcher makes it so we will not have to rake ( or bring in loose grass all over the house which happens when the person we use to pay, cut it with a riding mower!) and also makes it so it is easy to dump in the garden, in the chicken pen or in the mulch pile.


For the last 2 years we paid someone to do it as it was convenient and well, me and hubby just had too much other things going on for summer to survive on low wages. Yet we struggled to pay him and many times bills would get behind in order to keep our yard mowed. We have about an acre sized yard so it is a tiny yard to mow and even though he charged a very small rate, it would always become a difficult bill to keep up with, without letting others go. ( He charged so little as he is our neighbors son, who are related to our landlord)


So this year we bought our mower for $200 and it will pay for itself by the end of June! I also felt this would be good exercise for me on my road to recovery. Well I did try today and sent me into a 30 minute coughing fit, and for a small square had me drinking a whole gallon of water and taking about 5 breaks! So perhaps I need to still work up to this but I do have hubby, a 15 year old son and a 12 year old daughter who all can mow if I can't.

Oh and I am also very sore now, these muscles of mine really need to get built back up again, it is amazing to me how weak I really have gotten!

On a good note, we are still on our $880 a month budget, easily staying on track and using all extra income streams that come in above that on all our funding envelopes.  As you can see in that budget, there was no room to pay someone $100 a month for mowing! So yeah score for us in not breaking the budget for the convenience of someone else mowing this year!

Is there a way you have come up with recently to save on a monthly basis?

4 comments:

  1. Yea for you! And definitely have your kids help. My two daughters are small for their age, but they take turns with the mower, doing it in shifts.

    We're looking into buying a wood stove for next winter. It just wouldn't be an investment to save money, but it would also make our house more comfortable (especially for me during the day, when I'm the only one home. I won't turn up the heat if its just me here.)

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  2. We recently started doing the same things Carrie. Save for and buy things that will eliminate an expense. We are currently saving for a wood burning system. We recently moved and our old house had wood stove. I am not looking forward to paying for propane. Hopefully, we will have something in place before fall.

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  3. Hi Carrie,
    Just found your blog on another's blog list. Spent quite a bit of time skimming your posts and first off, I pray that you will be soon strong and fully recovered from your cancer. Secondly, you can count me as a regular reader, you are quite an inspiration with your perseverance. I am also thankful for your sharing of your first person perspective of poverty. As far as your question about saving money, right now our extra money is going to much needed repairs on our old house. We had a plumbing catastrophe & had to tear up a section of our cement patio as well as our kitchen floor :o( Next on the list will be a new woodstove.
    Take care... I hope you will take a visit over to my place (blog)~ http://simplesisteronashoestring.blogspot.com/

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by Josephine, funny thing I found your blog last night the same way!It was my bed time though so bookmarked it to check out this morning LOL!

      Appreciate your kind comment and yes old houses can sure take some surprising home maintance costs can't they?

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