Lawn Service For Alternative Income. Mow Your Own Lawn and Your Neighbors?
photo credit: Tjeerd
The best part about working from home has been spending time with my children and finding new ways to save money around the house. I’ve been working from home for almost 2 years now and because of this, we’ve saved thousands of dollars on household expenses (more posts on this over the next few weeks). My wife and I purchased our current home 4 years ago and the previous owners had a lawn service that handled all yard maintenance, except tree trimming. The lawn professional service cost $110 a month and my rational for this expense was the ability to spend more time with family. I was working 50-60 hours a week in San Francisco and had a 2 hour commute, and the $110 seemed justified at the time. I arranged to work from home full time with my manager and this allowed me to see what my $110 grass service was actually worth. The lawn service was good, but not great. Could I do it? The yard man came each week and spent about 15-20 minutes: trimming, mowing, and blowing leaves. Now, this guy worked really fast and had great lawn equipment , but for $110 a month? Could I do it? Well, the answer came when the guy started skipping weeks and wouldn’t return my phone calls. He made the decision very easy for me. I had a Yard Machines (Briggs & Stratton engine) brand lawn mower from my previous house, but needed to buy some other equipment to handle our bigger yard.
These are the items I purchased at Home Depot:
1. Ryobi gas trimmer cost $75
2. Ryobi Expandit hedge attachment $50
3. Ryobi backpack blower $179
4. Cutco pruner $75 (long story and worthy of it’s own post)
5. 2 plastic gas cans $20 (1 for mixing 2 stroke oil)
6. Costco gas. (I buy my lawn mower gas here as well)
Based on my purchases at Home Depot you might think I really like Ryobi products. They have held up over the last 2 years and are inexpensive compared to John Deere, Toro, Cub Cadet, Homelite, and Honda. Hopefully the Ryobi trimmer and blower will provide several more years of lawn service and savings to our family budget. I spent $399 (plus tax), which would pay for themselves in 3.62 months. Seems like a good investment, right?
One of the concerns I had about doing my own yard service was, could I consistently keep on top of mowing my lawn? Yes, but it took me longer than 20-30 minutes a week. I had a tendency to stop and look at my flowers and get working on a side project. It currently takes me about 45 minutes a week, and longer in the fall when I need to rake the leaves. Saving $27 a week to mow my own lawn was a very wise decision as it also helped me start saving money all over our house. It really changed the way I thought about monthly expenses and passive income or alternative income ideas.
If I saved $110 a month mowing my own yard, what could I make around our neighborhood? I live on a street with 9 houses and 6 have a lawn professional. They range from $90-$120 a month. A great alternative income opportunity to make up to $720 a month. Even better, one neighbor uses a company called Trugreen and they charge $40 every other month for fertilizer. Yard maintenance for 6 of your neighbors might not seem like your first idea for extra income, but making $720 a month could be a nice incentive. Since I’m working from home, I’m able to see these other yard crews and some don’t even spend 15 minutes on a house. It could pay for a lot of your household expenses! Imagine telling your wife that you can justify buying a car or sending your kids to private school. What about paying down your mortgage. Think of how fast you could pay it down with an extra $720 a month. Well, I’m not mowing any other yards yet, but it does make you think. Would you do it?
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Online Dividends Said:
That’s a great idea Scott. If you invest $700/month in the stock market and your total return is 9% annually and you do this for 29 years you’ve got yourself a cool $1mln.
However isn’t lawn mowing a seasonal gig?
Posted on August 28th, 2008
Scott Said:
@ Online Dividends $700 a month at 9% might take 29 years, but if we found other alternative income sources the time could decrease substantially. Mowing 7 lawns a week may be more than most people would be willing to do, but the additional savings of $100-200 a month can add up quickly.
Posted on September 4th, 2008
brent Said:
i have a grass cutter and he only charges me 40 bucks a month it is really not worth it to cut the grass for that price or maybe it is just me
Posted on September 10th, 2008
Scott Said:
@ Brent
What a deal. $40 a month for lawn care is an excellent deal. The best I could find was $90 and I couldn’t justify the expense for mowing and trimming the grass.
Posted on September 10th, 2008
Steve Said:
I don’t think that the time money tradeoff is worth it at all. What if you were to start a service that aggregates students willing to mow lawns for cheap and take a cut off the top? I totally agree how its nice to stay at home with the kids. My wife recently quit her job and we went the online store route to earn extra cash.
Posted on September 16th, 2008
Scott Said:
@ Steve I’ve thought about starting a service business that would incorporate lawn, gutter cleaning, and yard hauling, but am concerned about insurance and other costs. Seems like a good idea, but would be nice to make a profit.
Posted on September 17th, 2008