The line between time and money...

Where do you draw the line between your time and your money. We have an acre of yard with about 32 trees. That is a real number, not a guess. My son and I counted them last summer. Some trees are little and some are big. The grass LOVES the shady and damp nature of our yard. We have a push mower. An $88 WalMart special. It's not self-propelled and it has about a 19" mowing deck.

It takes my husband an ENTIRE day to mow the yard and most often he breaks it down into three evenings. That is a lot of time every week to mow the yard.

We finally decided that is TOO much time to mow the yard. We can't even just enjoy our yard from all the mowing. Plus, his work schedule has been incredibly busy while he (desperately) tries to turn things around at work.

So, the weather has warmed up and our gas bill dropped by about $250. I was looking forward to putting that money towards other things for a few months. However, this weekend the husband and I decided we'd pay someone to cut the yard. It's relatively inexpensive per mow but does add up over the month. It will run about $140/month. And actually I think that come August and September when the rain subsides and things slow down he and I together can keep up with the yard.

I thought maybe we should just buy a riding mower. We would really love to do that and then would be able to cancel the service. The problem with buying the mower is it is a one-time large expense. With the lawn people, I get to spread that expense out over the summer. Also, should we end up having to pick up and move across the country, we won't have to make room in the truck for the riding mower.

And yes, I'm home all day and I could cut the yard. However, I have school to do, 3 meals a day to fix, the house and laundry to keep up with as well as various other projects. I kind of feel that the yard is "his" thing. He can't keep up with it right now. I'd rather J. have time on the weekend to mess around with N, take back up playing golf, go for drives, go camping or anything. Not spend the whole weekend cutting grass.

So in this instance I think his time, and our family time, is worth the expense. Especially an expense that I would call a "luxury."

Now I think we should talk about how I'm falling behind in the housework and maybe we could hire that out, too.

Oh, I kid, I kid.