I was almost done mowing my lawn when I felt something pop loose, after which the handle of the mower was no longer attached to the frame on the left side. I shut off the mower and looked around on the ground, finding the metal peg that held the two pieces together. The peg on the opposite side was immovable, but the one that fell out had worn down enough such that it no longer fit snugly in the hole. Using a screw driver with a very long shaft, I hobbled along well enough to finish the lawn. I knew that before I had to mow again I would have to find a better fix.
“We’ve had that lawn mower for quite a few years, maybe it’s time to buy a new one anyway,” said my wife after telling her about the confrontation that had just occurred with my lawn mower.
Thinking about it a bit more, I walked myself through three options:
- Do It Yourself Repair : Looking at the pieces, I thought maybe a bolt and a hex nut would do the trick. But would the handle be able to freely move as it did with the smooth peg?
- Lawn Mower Repair Shop: I could take it to a repair shop, but who knows how long it would take to get it back. We’re in the part of Spring when the lawns needs mowing every couple of days and I cannot be without my mower for long.
- Buy A New Lawn Mower : My wife was right, I had been using this lawn mower for over 9 years. I’d definitely gotten my money out of it. I could be sure that the new mower would work, and I could have it right away.
As you read through the options, do you recognize what happened? I talked myself into buying a new lawn mower. The first two options are much less expensive, but I found downsides to both of them. Buying a brand new mower is far more expensive, but I framed it such that not only does it sound like the best option, but that also I deserve it.
A friend of mine once called this the “Oooooh, shiny!” effect. I was hypnotized by the thought of mowing my lawn with a new, bright red mower from the hardware store. I shook my head swiftly and snapped out of fantasy land.
“A lawn mower is not a status symbol,” I said to myself.
I knew that mowing the lawn with a new mower wouldn’t be a life altering event. It wouldn’t make it easier, or more enjoyable, or make me any new friends. There was no reason to spend hundreds of dollars on a new mower, when my current one still started easily with a single pull.
The next day I went to the hardware store, with the worn down peg in my pocket. The extremely helpful guy I talked to (he’s helped me numerous times before) suggested a couple of different potential solutions. One of them being a bolt with a hex nut. He helped me find the sizes needed, and rang up my bill of a whopping $0.63.
When I got home, I armed myself with a pliers and a socket set and within two minutes had my handle reattached to my lawn mower’s frame. I checked the handle, which still moved up and down freely due to the size of the bolt selected, just slightly smaller than the hole. With one pull, the engine roared to life and I was off mowing my lawn with a smile on my face.
Fixing my lawn mower for under $1 was certainly the right decision. Had I dropped hundreds on a new mower I wouldn’t have gotten any additional value out of my new mower. Mowing the lawn is just mowing the lawn. That’s not being frugal or cheap, that’s just being smart with my money.
Have you ever almost talked yourself into buying something new, and then ended up only spending a few bucks fixing your old one?
ha I’m there right now with my vacuum cleaner. I someone ended up having my ex boyfriend’s vacuum when he moved to Seattle, and it was already old. That damn thing was pretty much falling apart but still I used it. Now it’s totally done, gone, dead. I would LOVE a shiny new vacuum, but right now I’m “co-parenting” a used vacuum with my good friend until I feel like buying a used one. Since I vacuum about every other day, it currently resides in my apt. Since he is kind of a slob, he hardly ever needs it. Hacking my way through life. 🙂
“co-parenting” a vacuum – love that term, LOL. And hey, it’s only a hack if it doesn’t work – that’s what we say in software engineerland. 🙂
LOL, our lawn mower is 15 yrs old, we got it with a bonus Rick got from work and spent $150 on it. Rick has been waiting patiently for it to croak so he can have the joy of buying a new one, but it just keeps on ticking and he can’t bring himself to replace a perfectly good lawn mower. Gotta love it. 🙂
The disappointment of not being able to buy something new….lol. The more I think about it, the thrill of buying a new lawn mower would be extremely short lived. Glad the mower is still going strong – for both of us!
I had a similar experience when I dropped my phone. I came up with every excuse in the book to buy a new one. In the end my level head prevailed and I was able to get a phone at no cost. Luckily my friend had the same model and no longer needed it. It had half the storage space but gets the job done.
It makes calls, that’s all that really matters, right Jason? Nice work finding a cheap replacement!
In the days before being debt free I’m sure I would have considered buy the new mower myself. These days I’m always looking for a DIY route first. Just fixed a flat on my son’s bike, pick up the new tube for under $5 and his bike is as good as new.
Plus there’s just the satisfaction of being able to fix something yourself, right Brian? Kind of like somehow cheating the universe…. 🙂
Love this story! My fiancé and I actually experienced this exact situation last summer. It was our first time moving into a house where the landlord requires us to do the yard work. Before this we lived in an apartment with landscaping. Neither one of us owned a lawn mower! Looking around at the pristine lawns in the neighborhood, it would be easy for us to give in and buy a fancy, gasoline powered lawn mower. We opted to buy the push mower. I guess you could say it’s the “base model” of lawn mowers but it does the trick! Also, provides more of an arm work out which I think is great. Glad to see you opted for the $1.00 fix up!
The thing about those push mowers….they do a GREAT job too. I had a neighbor that had one – they’re heavy (great workout!), but he loved it!
We almost talked ourselves into a new mower when DIY did not work, but the lawn mower shop did the trick for $90. A new riding mower would have been at least four times that much. I used to fall victim to the shiny effect, and it still tries to creep in there every now and then, but shiny only lasts for a short while and then I feel guilty for spending money I shouldn’t have.
yeah, shiny on a new lawn mower would last about two mowings. Then it’d would be the same grass colored, oil smeared piece of equipment! Thanks for reading, Kim!
I think you’ll get a lot more enjoyment and pride out of fixing your lawnmower yourself than you would have if you just bought a new one. Nicely done!
I agree Rebecca….everytime I start it up I’ll look down and see the bolt and hex nut and do a little fist pump!
I think you made the best decision. I have to admit that my first response would be to buy a new lawn mower. I prefer electric so I can plug and go. I realize my mentality still needs a little tweaking, and your right a lawn mower isn’t a symbol status. Happy Mowing.
It’s always looking into seeing what it would cost to repair something before buying new……many times (as it did here), it may be surprising how easy and inexpensive it is to fix what you’ve got!
Less than a dollar to fix it? Huge win! I think it’s a generational thing as well. My grandpa talked about getting his lawn mower fixed a couple years ago and it seemed like it was a no-brainer to get it fixed versus purchase a new one. He even had a friend who knew how to repair lawn mowers and was able to get his fixed quickly and for not very much money. We live in a different world these days.
It’s always great when you “know someone” that can help. The guy at the hardware store has helped me with numerous projects….he’s my go to DIY expert!
My lawn mower recent crapped out on me after years of tune-ups and repairs to keep it running. In the end, the thing was chipped and covered in duct tape.
We finally purchased a new one and I made the big decision to go with an all electric mower. It was a little more expensive up front, but I am hoping that it will pay for itself in savings.
When you’re out of places to apply duct tape, I think you’ve reached the point where you need to buy a new mower. LOL. Great to hear from you Jefferson!
I completely agree with you. Unfortunately, in our society most people would probably beg to differ. One of the guys I work with just purchased a huge new riding lawn mower, apparently it has the new “zero turn technology” and a blade of something ridiculous like 64 inches. He literally was showing people at the office photos of it on his cell phone. Almost like a proud new father or something. He spent like $5,000 on this lawn mower. I’m sure it made him happy for a bit, and he’s definitely trying to prove something. But guess what – he’s 45, with a huge mortgage, three kids heading to college, and no end to his desk job in sight. I don’t want to be that guy!! To me it’s a symbol all right, one of excess consumerism and low self-esteem.
$5000 on a lawn mower…….that’s outrageous. Sounds like he’s trying to prove something to someone!
Here here. We did away with the lawn mower altogether in our current home. We landscaped the grass right out of the yard. Only wood chip, fruit trees & bushes, ferns and flowers for us…you can buy a lot of plants for what it costs to buy and maintain a lawn mower, let alone buy a fancy one.
I love my grass……so I wouldn’t do what you did – but if you like it, more power to you! Just out of curiosity, I wonder what kind of time effort is required to take care of all the plants as opposed to mowing a lawn?
That’s awesome you decided to repair the lawn mower instead of buying a new one. We moved to a house with a yard recently and had to get a lawn mower for cutting the lawn in the yard. Our yard is not the biggest and we figured we probably would only mow the lawn probably 10 times or less each year. Looking at all the lawn mowers in Home Depot we were price shocked. The cheapest one was close to $300 and the Home Depot employee was trying to convince us to go for the $500 one because it had a better engine and it would propel itself.
We ended up with a manual one for less than $100. We figured using a manual one would save us on gas and would provide some us some exercise. It’s a win-win.
It’s amazing how much people will spend to take exercise and effort out of their lives…..and then pay again for a gym membership to add it back in. LOL. Thanks for reading, Tawcan!
This is great! These moments of decision – and there are about 5 billion of them – all add up to our financial state of health. Metacognition, the ability to think about what you think about, is something that most of us don’t get a handle on. You’ve done it here though. A definite high-5 moment!
Yeah, high-5 AND A fist pump! That brain has to be moving at all times……..if it’s not firing on all cylinders, I would have ended up with a new lawnmower, and and old one that just needed a small fix!
Forget shiny. What you need is racing stripes! Hose off that bad boy and get some paint from the garage and paint some stripes on it. Or possibly lightening bolts.
LOL….that would definitely make it more interesting to mow the lawn! I say lightening bolts!!! 🙂
I have to admit, a under $1 fix is awesome! But may I suggest option 4 (this is one with the long-term in mind)?
Sell all your sods, buy some weed-mat and mulch and local plants and turn your yard in to a low maintenance one. You can even change it to a perma-culture landscape and have very little to do at all, but harvest occasionally. It works great for ours, we don’t even own a lawnmower and spend very little time actually maintaining it!
Well, Mr. FSF, that’s one thought. But it would take a whole lot of local plants to turn my 2/3rds of an acre into a grassless yard. I’m guessing that the conversion would be enough to buy and maintain my lawn mower for quite a few years. 😉 Thanks for reading!