Gotta keep the lawn mowed

I think we have decided what to do with the money from the car sale. We need a new riding lawn mower. Suddenly it dawned on me (even though I knew this!) that we had to get a mower by next spring, so of course this is perfect timing now that we have the cash.

We have had a friends John Deere mower for the past 6 years! He had moved to a fixer upper place and had no lawn to mow and our old Sears riding mower finally died. He wasn't using his mower and already had so much stuff stored in his garage from the move that he brought it over and said use it until I need it. Well, we've just kept using it and using it and he hasn't needed it.......until soon. He put in his sprinkler system recently and will have lawn by next spring.

DH has taken meticulous care of this borrowed mower (usually when he borrows something from someone it goes back in better shape then we got it) and he's always trying to give it back to friend (we feel guilty using it so long!) but he always says he knows where it is when he needs it back. DH even tried to get friend to let us give him the new one and we'd just keep his! Of course, he said no. I'm sure DH will now want to buy a John Deere after using this one for so long and I have no idea what price range he will be looking at. In past years he'd just go buy the most expensive one they had. Now there is even a good chance he will even look for a used one. I'm hoping this is the case. It would be nice to have some of the money left over for some other things/projects. He's also going to use a bit of the money to do a good tune up on friends mower (though we always change the oil and winterize it and recently put new blades on it) before we give it back.

The only thing I really wanted to get with some of the money is a garden arbor. I showed DH one I found on craigslist that a guy makes, $100 for a nice cedar arbor, but DH thinks he could pretty easily make one himself......so we'll see if I ever end up with an arbor, LOL.

So, the money is still sitting in an envelope in my desk. I still haven't deposited it. It feels kind of nice knowing we have this nice chunk of money available, but also kind of nice that for now it hasn't been spent. In the old days it would have been spent the day we got it. At least this time we are sitting on it and thinking of different ideas on how best to use it (we have so many things that need fixing or replacing around here that are long over due). I think DH has several things he needs or wants to replace, so I have a feeling he's going to go with a lower priced mower so he has enough  money for some of the other things he also wants to do.  It will be interesting to see what decision he comes up with and I'm sure he'll change his mind 30 times in the next couple of days.