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?
