The Five Dollar Lawn Mower

It took awhile, but we finally found a lawnmower for next to nothing. This is our first house and the first place we needed to take care of a lawn, so we need almost everything lawn related. The former owners left one of those fertilizer spreader things (and several bags of fertilizer), but we had no lawn mower. We had this idea that it would not be difficult to find one used.

We were wrong.

I saw several at yard sales, but most of those would not start, were in really bad shape, or were overpriced. Some mowers were all three. A particularly memorable one was a cheapo looking plastic mower. It did not run. The plastic was cracked in several places, some pieces were missing, AND the handle was duct taped on. They were asking eighty dollars for it, and the price was firm.

I kept my eye on Freecycle, but all of the mowers that were offered did not run. We checked pawn shops, thrift stores, and the newspaper. My husband finally located one on Craigslist for 25 dollars.

He went to pick it up today, and when he tried it out, it would not start. It sort of almost started, but the pull cord thing kept getting stuck. The lady offered it to him for free. Kirk insisted that she take some money for it, and they agreed on five dollars. He hauled it home and got to work on it.

Using the wonders of the internet, he looked up common problems and worked through them one by one. He cleaned the filter, did something to the fuel, and generally tinkered around with it. About an hour later, it started, and it works great!

It's not pretty or fancy, but it does the job!