Budget Thinking

Yesterday, I mowed my lawn for the first time in 2023...  last year, the first mowing was in April... as soon as you mow for the first time, it is once a week until October...  or about 6/7 months...  sometimes, the grass stops growing by the end of September and sometimes, it grows for another month.

My gas can is 5 gallons and it lasts about 3 tanks so I will fill it up about 8-10 times.  At $3/gallon, I will spend $150 mowing the lawn this spring-summer-fall.

While that may not seem like much money, for some people it is a lot of money.  It takes about an hour to mow and another hour to weed eat.  So, 26 weeks times 2 hours is a total of 52 hours spent on lawn maintenance.  If I paid myself $10/hour, I would spend another $500 and if I paid myself $20/hour, it would be $1,000+/-...

By thinking this through, I am able to prepare a budget that will incorporate lawn maintenance and gasoline...  Do I use the cost of labor or just the supplies? 

I ask this because the two hours that I spend working on lawn maintenance are two hours that physically impact my body negatively.  The riding lawn mower that I use, goes over rippled ground, so I am constantly bouncing up and down which is bad for the disks in my back.  When I weed eat, the eater is not long enough for my body and I must bend over just slightly and that puts a strain on my body as well.

My cancer treatments require that I stay out of the sun, so I must wear UV protective clothing, otherwise my skin turns pink and red and I am not sure what other impact it may have on my cancer cells that are trying to grow inside me.

So, several things must be taken into consideration when planning out a budget, just for lawn maintenance.  Of course, there is wear and tear on the riding lawn mower and each year of usage, the wear and tear increases just like with the human body.  Lawn mower maintenance cost is about $150 each year as well.

Then one must also consider grass seed, straw, fertilizer, and water.  Then there again is the labor when using these things as well as the labor watering the grass seed.

I don't rake leaves, I mow them up so I am saving myself some physical exertion there.  Many of my neighbors rake up their leaves...  not sure why they do that.

When you think about budgets, figure out your total annual cost for something, then prorate it over 12 months...  for example, car insurance comes out twice a year, but if you spread it out over 12 months, you will already have that money set aside.

More budget tips in future articles...