Cutting your expenses/trimming your costs

[LovesLife]

Mikey,

Ooooh, that suggests a hidden agenda. Not true. Husband still adores me so I am one lucky wife. However, I still remain guilty of being spoiled. Love has its price so I pay in "other ways"

LovesLife

 

[BUM]

I've been cutting grass for 30 years. I think John Galt and I have spent about the same on machines. I'm sad to say that 2 machines in inhereted. When I bought this house 20 years ago I inflated the selling price of the old house to pay for a new Wheel Horse with mower and plow. Its still in good shape but now FOR SALE

Inhereted a 1985 Gravely 8220 ? with deck and plow and a 2003 John Deere L130 with cruise control WOOHOO.

Sadly I've spent a fortune on weedwackers and leaf blowers that never work... my bad

 

[Mr._johngalt]

I enjoy mowing but hate yardwork otherwise.
Don't even own a weedtrimmer nor a leaf blower
(nor even a snow blower or plow). I mow whatever grows naturally and drive over the snow until it melts.
Honestly, the best mowers I have owned were bought
VERY used, It was mostly the new ones that gave me trouble.

JG

 

[Janie]

We were an equal opportunity household growing up. My dad made me and my brother mow the lawn on alternate weekends. We also had a big hill. There was no sympathy from Dad. I am a year younger than my brother but was taller than he was until he sprouted in college.

Now, happily married and my husband insists on mowing the lawn, cleaning the gutters out, etc. How did I get so lucky!?!

 

[Mr._johngalt]

Hey Janie! I mow the lawn, clean the gutters, keep
all vehicles, appliances, and yard equipment working,
wash dishes, do laundry, mop floors, sweep, do windows, vacuum, feed and water the dogs, put out the garbage, dust and etc etc. Yep, I'm a Prince. Did I mention that
my DW works. This is her day off. She is painting the living room right now.
I'm trying to stay out of her way

JG

 

[Martha]

Cut-Throat,

I think that is a great idea but the hill is really steep. It is a liability issue. There is a 1/2 pond at the bottom of the hill. The previous owner rolled his mower twice into the pond and the second time he was trapped under his mower until help arrived.

This is definately not the home we are going to retire in. Way to big and too much upkeep. However, I have seen the light. Smaller home, less yard = more time for fun

LovesLife

Hire the lawn service, not individuals, to do the lawn. Then ask to see their worker's compensation policy.

Or, put something other than grass on the hill. We terraced the from hill on our building to avoid steep mowing and I planted flowers:

 

[Martha]

Me too. To combat it, I recommend having a nice beer on the back patio with a baby

Sorry...

So who's the baby? or is it, who is the fish?

 

[LovesLife]

Marth,

Gorgeous flowers. No wonder you are excited about Spring. Thanks for the advice on the lawn service.

LovesLife

 

[Ginger]

My husband does the lawn service at our house. He cuts the grass, waters, trims the trees. I do the weeding. I told him "any time you get tired of all the manual labor, hire a lawn service." He said it is great physical activity and beats his desk job! Relaxing for him and keeps him fit.

 

[flipstress]

I have spring fever bad.  Snowed yesterday and a little today.  

Martha, my sympathies regarding the snow. We had a bit of a cold spell for a couple of days here, too, in South Central WI, but it's nice again today and spring has definitely been here the last couple of weeks.

We have a really small yard, but the woman who originally owned the house was a great gardener. She planted all sorts of native, hardy, pretty shrubs and flowers. However, I grew up in a city neighborhood where I didn't see much grass, trees, or plants, except my mom's potted plants, so I am still learning to garden.

We have a push mower that provides good exercise, and that comes cheap with annual/bi-annual cost of about $25 for sharpening the blades. I dream of putting in lots of plants and ground cover to minimize, if not totally eliminate, mowing someday.

Nice picture of your flowers, BTW.

 

[Mountain_Mike]

I enjoy yard work and almost any other "mindless" (no offense intended to yard care professionals) labor. It is a welcome break from the paperwork and bureaucracy I face most of the time at work.

Beautiful yard, Martha!

 

[laurence]

Yeah, bad weather all around! It rained here in SD today, temperature dropped below 70 for a bit!

 

[BUM]

Concerning lawn mowing, Pop used to say, "We have an arrangement, God waters it I cut it".

 

[Ol_Rancher]

PLEASE refrain from posting such large jpegs ... some of us use dial up ... yes you have a vute baby and Martha thinks he is cute too but you are killing the ability of some of us to use the site. How about you loser the resolution ?

As for me and lawn mowing, I least the acreage to my neighbor and his buffalo and llama do a fine job plus they fertilizee too!

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Sorry O'Rancher...I did cut that photo down to approximately 1/20th its original size.

If you'd like to smooth out the dial-up experience when encountering these problems, in internet explorer go to 'tools', then 'internet options', then 'advanced'...scroll down to 'multimedia' and check 'show download image placeholders" on and "show pictures" off.

This will show a box wherever a picture is, if you click on it, the photo will display. Otherwise you wont get any photos unless you ask for them.

 

[sgeeeee]

Concerning lawn mowing, Pop used to say, "We have an arrangement, God waters it I cut it".

Apparently God doesn't make that deal with those of us who live in Arizona.  I have to depend on Roosevelt Water Conservation District for the water. 

I just got back from a week-long trip to Illinois and got home to a freshly mowed lawn.  I was guessing that my neighbor did that for me (I have really nice neighbors who always seem to stay one favor ahead of me), but maybe God decided that since she didn't water it, she would mow if for me.   

 

[Martha]

PLEASE refrain from posting such large jpegs ... some of us use dial up ... yes you have a vute baby and Martha thinks he is cute too but you are killing the ability of some of us to use the site. How about you loser the resolution ?

As for me and lawn mowing, I least the acreage to my neighbor and his buffalo and llama do a fine job plus they fertilizee too!

Sorry, I will be sure to try to downsize the resolution as much as possible and won't "quote" pictures. I am so used to cable and DSL that I didn't think about the potential problem for those on dial up.

 

[Ol_Rancher]

th, Martha. BigMoneyJim,
Thank you for your efforts to help with the jpeg /bandwidth issue. This type of response is but one of the elements that make this forum the best on the web.

I hope I didn't come off as an old grump, but I suspect that the age demographic here would indicate that there should be more than a few of us like that. If the problem was not addressed quickly this forum and its new format had a real possibility of defeating its purpose. Many forums elsewhere that have less courteous membership degenerate into a personal show and tell when they are not flaming each other.

You guys like so many others here, are great contributors to this wonderful effort making FIRE possible for many more people and easier for those of us who ER ed. Again thanks.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Glad some good options came up for ya. Its been a long time since I suffered at the end of a piece of string and orange juice can!

Hmm...show and tell/flamers...? Can I show you a few thousand 5 megapixel baby photos ya old #^$%#?

 

[laurence]

Ol_Rancher, you epitomise quality over quantity as evidenced by the fact that you have only 70 something posts on the board, and I just crossed over in to full time job posting here!

 

[P.S.]

Martha:

That's a beautiful bed of flowers! Have you heard of Andre Viette's nursery? They have gorgeous plants that grow wonderfully when transplanted. They also mail. Even better than White Flower Farm in my experience.

 

[Martha]

Martha:

That's a beautiful bed of flowers! Have you heard of Andre Viette's nursery? They have gorgeous plants that grow wonderfully when transplanted. They also mail. Even better than White Flower Farm in my experience.

Haven't heard of them. The only plants I currently buy mail order are spring flowering bulbs. I find I need to give more perenials away then add them at this point. Most of my perenials I acquired through barter with other northern gardeners.

I do annuals for flower boxes and do some veggies. I have thought about buying a small greenhouse, maybe 6 x 8, to grow veggies because our season is so short and to start annuals. With about 30 flower boxes and pots, my cost for annuals is too high and I need to get it down somehow. My other alternative is grow lights in the basement.

 

[LovesLife]

I don't know if it is appropriate to butt in on this post for this little announcement but it was friggin' 22 degrees here this morning in IA. I am sure that my lilacs are lost to the frost. Just within the last 2 weeks we had 80's.

LovesLife

Sorry about the hijack

 

[Dawg52]

I don't know if it is appropriate to butt in on this post for this little announcement but it was friggin' 22 degrees here this morning in IA.  I am sure that my lilacs are lost to the frost.  Just within the last 2 weeks we had 80's.

LovesLife

Sorry about the hijack

43 this morning in MS. Kind of cool for here.

 

[Caroline]

We're having changeable spring weather here in Northern California -- moving from winter to summer.

Only going to reach 71 today, apparently.

Caroline