I recently railed against what some people pay for lawn care, but a comment on that post has me rethinking my position on it. Instead of seeing lawn work as an expense, I should be seeing the extra income opportunity. Check out this comment from a reader:
I charged $1/minute for mowing, trimming, or basically anything to do with the yard. Oh and I used their supplies.
My average yard was 30 minutes of mowing, mowed twice a week for about 5 months (5 months*4.3 wks/mo*2 mows/wk* $30/mow=$1,290) plus gas and everything else I'm sure ran them at least $1,500 a summer.
I had 10 to 12 house per summer from age 12-16. Conservative estimate I made $1,000/house/summer * 10 houses * 5 summers = $50k just from mowing.
Not bad for a 12 to 16 year old -- $60 per hour. In fact, not bad for any of us looking for a bit of extra pocket money, though I wonder if the economy will take its toll on lawn mowers this summer.
Anyway, add this idea to my February money making list, my overall money making list and my 11 suggestions for making more money. Among all of these, surely there are some ideas suitable to anyone who would like to earn a bit more.
After 10 yrs of hiring lawn care this summer, I'm buying an electric mower & doing it myself.
Yeah, the economy pushed me to do it, but I always felt the cost was ridiculous ($35/mow of my small 1/3 acre lot) and I got mad that they always tore up the lawn with their commercial riding equipment that they usEd even if the ground was wet (my lot slopes, too).
Especially when the last guys I hired swore they'd mow it with a hand mower and then they didn't and they also kept cutting the grass too short and killed swaths of it.
I'm happy to keep paying for housecleaning, but lawn mowing? Not worth it for what you get.
Posted by: MC | April 30, 2009 at 05:12 PM
It can be pretty lucrative. When my uncle retired, he picked up several lawn mowing jobs to make extra $$. He used a riding mower, so it wasn't intense labor.
Another relative hired a town firefighter to cut her grass. Definitely a side job that would fit around his work shifts...
Posted by: DW | April 30, 2009 at 06:09 PM
My husband wrote a post a while back about how he "paid for our whole life" by mowing the lawn. An exaggeration, of course, but we've saved a lot of money! (And that money can be used for other stuff.)
Posted by: frugalscholar | April 30, 2009 at 06:53 PM
Hi, great post.
An great example of earning money mowing is Jim's Mowing Service. Jim has written an autobiography about how he went from mowing lawns as a kid, to building the biggest mowing franchise in Australia, that covers almost every suburb on the continent.
Posted by: Melissa@frugalandthriving | April 30, 2009 at 10:15 PM
I did landscaping throughout high school and college. I got a free tan, exercise, and money for college. Hmm, maybe I should start it up again!
Posted by: Corporate Barbarian | May 01, 2009 at 06:45 AM
50K for a 12-16 year old? Whoa!
When my folks pay people to mow and trim their lawn, it usually runs them from $10-25. Kids in groups will do it awfully cheap and quick.
Posted by: t | May 01, 2009 at 12:18 PM
I have a neighbor who lost his job who offered to mow my 3/4 acre for $30. I didn't have the time last weekend to do it myself and it has grown up pretty quick with all the nice weather we've had, so I might just take him up on it to save myself the trouble of push mowing my ridiculously dense grass this time.
Posted by: justatron | May 01, 2009 at 12:42 PM
I am cutting two of my neighbors lawns for $25 each. It takes roughly 20-30 minutes to cut and trim each lawn. I will be hard at it today since it has rained almost all this week.
Posted by: Matt | May 02, 2009 at 01:09 PM
The question I have is why would I want to mow my lawn? My time is much too valuable to be wasted on that. Last year, I decided to outsource this activity to a professional company. I pay the professional company $30/week (April - September) to mow, hedge, and fertilize the lawn. The lawn looks fantastic, and I don't waste the 3+ hours per week doing it myself. I can focus that time playing with my kids or working on my professional job (which more than covers this expense). I have colleagues at work who slay themselves in the office, and then spend 5 hours on the weekends slaying their lawns. I safely avoid that and instead can read a book in the same amount of time (a good investment in my mind) or take my kids to a museum (good investment in time and enriching my mind).
Posted by: John | May 04, 2009 at 06:27 PM
i have 30 yards right now and each one is paying 25 dollars. did you put the money in bank or have to hold onto it so the irs doesnt get involved. i am a college student just trying to stay out of debt. thanks!
Posted by: Jeff | May 21, 2009 at 11:38 PM