Wednesday, May 9, 2012

When Cheapness Promotes Physical Fitness




Last year, our lawn mower bit the dust.  The thing caused us problems from the moment we got it.  I should have probably just returned it a long time ago - but that would have been pretty tacky, when it finally dawned on me 4 years after the fact that it sucked, to return it.  So I cut my losses and just got rid of it.

But as my lawn mower hit it's last breaths, I was over a friend's house and her husband was pushing around this thing.  I was like "Wow!  They still make those things?!"  The whole concept was kind of 1950s to me.  So I asked him about it and he said it's great.  Now granted, their yard is about half the size of mine - but I thought about taking the push mower plunge.

Since the belts have been pulled tight around here, we really didn't have the $300 to drop on a new gas powered one.  I trusted said friend and neighbor who said the push mower was a wise choice.  So I went to Home Depot and dropped about $80 (reg. $125) on a premium push mower.  It was on sale and I had a coupon.  I honestly didn't even know stores still sold these things.

Push Mowers have come a long way.   I'm surprised how nice & easy it is to push this thing around.  I don't regret my decision.  I love how it's light weight and I can just whip it out of my shed in a moment's notice to do a little cutting.  What I also love is that my front yard grows about 3 times faster than my back yard due to extreme sun exposure - and it would kill me to take out the gas mower just to cut this tiny portion of my yard when the back didn't need it.  Now, it's easy to do just wheel this out, knock out just the front and put it back in the shed.

To those who see me pushing this thing - they probably think I'm just some modern day hippy who cares about the environment and am doing my part to save the ozone from a little exhaust.  The fact of the matter is that I was just too cheap to buy a new gas mower and I kind of like the little added exercise mowing my lawn gives me.  It's not excruciating exercise - but every little bit helps, right?

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