I didn't retire to Florida to mow my own lawn. So now I'm retired to Florida and still mow my own lawn.
I think part of the reason I could afford to retire to Florida is that I've always been too cheap to pay others to do things I'm perfectly capable of doing myself. The first week after we moved in, I called the guy who had been doing my lawn (as well as my neighbor's lawns) to ask how much he wanted to continue the service. $50/week to mow this postage stamp. Heck, the road drainage ditch at my old place was twice the size of this lawn!
I did the math in my head (if it's big round numbers, I can still do that) and realized it would take about two months to pay for the hardware to mow it myself.
So I picked up an electric self-propelled plastic mower at Lowes that cost more than the 4-wheel-drive, Honda-powered Husqevarna push mower I used to mow that ditch with. It didn't look substantial enough to shave with, but it had the advantage of folding up to fit in my new downsized garage, and didn't need gasoline. And it worked amazingly well. So I bought a matching string trimmer and hedge trimmer that can use the same batteries -- and was equally amazed that they worked, too.
It takes about 45 minutes to do the deed. That's an hour and 15 minutes less than it used to take to mow my Texas place. I do a better job than the lawn guy and I don't have to wait until mowing day when we get a bunch of rain. And it's not like I don't have 45 minutes to spare in a week of Florida retirement. I just skip one nap.
The neighbors all think I'm nuts. Same as Texas.
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