How to save money on yard maintenance
Taking care of your yard is usually not an area in which most homeowners look to gain an edge in personal finances, but there are quite a few simple ways to save money on yard maintenance that can make a difference in the family budget. An individual seeking to save money on their yard maintenance has to think a bit "outside of the box" and instead of looking for technological advances to make work easier search for tasks that represent a chance to save money. While this may include a small amount of extra physical effort, the benefit far outweighs the cost at least in terms of not only the money that can be saved, but by the impact of some added exercise and sunshine to an individual's overall quality of life.
The first step to save money on yard maintenance is to take good care of every yard tool that you possess. Manual yard tools such as rakes, shovels, shears, and wheel barrows should be maintained well and stored properly when not in use to avoid the need for replacement. The same measures apply to mechanized yard equipment as well. Lawn mowers, garden tractors and rotary tillers can be extremely expensive to replace and a small bit of preventive maintenance can save a ton of money down the road on yard maintenance.
One of the best ways to save money on yard maintenance is to eliminate the need to purchase expensive and sometimes toxic lawn and garden chemicals. This can be most easily accomplished by making your own soil additives, fertilizer and weed spray from time-tested materials that work just as well as store-bought items. A homemade compost pile can save a good deal of money on yard maintenance by reducing or eliminating the need to buy fertilizer, and by mixing compost into the soil the need for purchased topsoil is reduced. An average homeowner usually spends a fair amount of money on chemicals to kill weeds, when gallons of homemade weed killer can be made for next to nothing. A cup of ordinary bleach mixed in a quart of water kills weeds quickly when applied, and even the nicotine from discarded cigarette butts that have been soaked in water are very effective at killing most types of weeds.
Perhaps the most important tool that a homeowner possesses to save money on yard maintenance is their intellect and ingenuity. By addressing the areas that are obvious to save money while keeping an eye on the long term goals a homeowner can save money on yard maintenance on a continuous basis.
