I started mowing the lawn late this afternoon but not with a traditional gas mower. I have an old-fashioned reel mower that I use when the grass isn’t too long for mowing.
The reason I use the reel mower is simple: it doesn’t take gasoline to run a reel mower! You just keep pushing and mow that sucker on human power alone—great for us frugal types!
I still have a gasoline mower for when the lawn gets away from me but I try not to use it if I don’t have to. This saves not only gas but oil and wear and tear on the more expensive gasoline push mower as well.
The reel mower was purchased new from Amazon at a cost of less than half of what a gasoline mower was going to cost. The gasoline one was caught at a rock-bottom clearance price at Wal-Mart… think I paid $80 for it if that! Between the two I have invested what it would have cost me to purchase a gasoline mower at full price and the option to save money on gasoline when I mow regularly.
I got the lawn about halfway finished before it became too dark to see. I’ll finish it tomorrow afternoon and be done with the chore for another small spell.
Personally, I would prefer my yard to be filled with white clover and other flowering plants that don’t grow very tall—that would reduce if not eliminate mowing entirely as well as being prettier than a traditional lawn. In fact I plan to purchase some white clover seed this fall to thicken the back yard some. I can’t justify doing the whole yard but eventually it will take over if I work at it!
What do you do to save money while mowing?