Month: September 2011

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Frugal Fix Friday: Lawn Mower

mower
Our lawn mower was running ROUGH! Not a little rough, but dislocate-your-shoulder-trying-to-start-it rough. Eventually we could usually get it started, but would most likely get injured in the process.

Starting: We would yank the cord furiously trying to make it start and would have little luck, and every once in a while it would just lock and the cord wouldn’t pull like you’d expect. Ouch. With some persistence it would start though.

Running: It ran rough. It seemed louder than when we had first bought it. There was an occasional clanking sound like metal hitting metal. Also, It couldn’t handle thick grass like it used to. It would get bogged down and stall really easily.

Cause: We suspected at least 2 footballs had been run over as well as a tree root (possibly more than one).

We really were not sure what to do about this. We thought we’d have to go buy a new mower. We really didn’t want to since this one was only a couple years old to begin with. Fortunately, doing some research online led us to other people with similar problems and an easy (and cheap) solution!

It turned out the problem was a tiny little piece of aluminum (or something soft like that) called a flywheel key. We went to a local small engine shop and bought a 2 pack of flywheel keys for $2. Put one in and the engine was running MUCH, MUCH better!

The video below is a good explanation of how to get at and replace the flywheel key. My only comment is that before you take a hammer to your mower and risk damage. Try just grabbing your flywheel on opposite sites and giving it a pull. Mine came right off without the need to bash it. If that doesn’t work, then give his hammer trick a whirl. His is better (less damaging) than others I’ve seen.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4aFXHwxuhs]

Since we had the mower mostly apart we actually decided to go a little further and we cleaned out the cylinder head and muffler with carb cleaner. This is because we had been getting some black smoke when starting the engine sometimes. We suspect that this is a result of running our engine rough for so long (about a year!)

All said and done we fixed our problem for $2 dollars and went the extra mile for the cost of half a can of carb cleaner.

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Frugal Fix Friday: Lunch Money

You know what can be a surprisingly expensive aspect of my life at times?

Lunch. I normally wouldn’t think of lunch being expensive but it really can be! I used to always go out to lunch at Chipotle or Panera because those are my favorite lunch destinations. Once I set a goal of saving money though, they were the first thing to get cut since my meals of choice at these places were over $10.
10/day X 20 workdays/month = $200/Month for lunch! That needed an adjustment.

So, I started going home everyday for lunch and eating the leftovers from supper the night before.  Much cheaper! food = $0. Driving back home each day doubles my amount of driving though which means an extra half gallon or so of gas each day. That’s still much better at about $40/month instead of $200.

Next, I decided I wanted to start biking to work instead of driving. Then I don’t have to try to find parking, and I get a little bit of that much needed exercise I’ve been slacking on lately! The idea when I was biking was that I would pack a lunch everyday to bring with me. This worked for about a week. Then I started forgetting nearly everyday. So, since I didn’t have a car I would walk to the nearest eatery, Subway. That’s definitely a step backwards @ $8/day, or about $160/month.

Lunch for a 3-day week.
Lunch for a 3-day week.

Fortunately, I think I’ve found a plan that works for me. I can make my lunches to bring with me everyday, but make them all ahead of time. Then I can’t forget! So, on Sunday nights I prepare 5 lunches (and breakfasts!) for the week. It works great. Each morning I just grab a lunch, and a breakfast out of the fridge, toss it in my bag and I’m off. Not only is it the cheapest route, but I also eat the healthiest this way.

For a typical week, I will make 5 sandwiches, 5 small bags of veggies, 5 small bags of a fruit, and 5 half-cup containers of either unsweetened applesauce, or cottage cheese. Also, I like to pack a small breakfast, which is usually 1 larger fruit (like an apple, orange or banana usually) and something with some protein like yogurt, or hard-boiled eggs. I haven’t calculated the price on this but we buy everything at Aldi, and I opt for the larger containers instead of individually wrapped servings on things like yogurt, applesauce, etc. So, it’s not more than a couple dollars per day.